


Cats and Falling in Love

by platinumllamas



Category: ASTRO (Band)
Genre: Angst, Cats, Dating, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, M/M, Mutual Pining, Oblivious Dongmin, Pining, Slow Burn, we'll see how long it will take for them to fall in love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-04-16 08:07:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 32,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14160438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/platinumllamas/pseuds/platinumllamas
Summary: Without thinking Dongmin pressed the doorbell and was about to walk off when he heard someone shout.“Oh fuck me, Minhyuk. The cat just rang the doorbell!”





	1. Chapter 1

Dongmin was on his way home when he heard meowing come from some short distance away. Curious, he decided to investigate and found a tortoiseshell cat perched outside the door of a house. The cat was meowing quite loudly and Dongmin figured that it was it’s home that the cat sat in front of. He crouched next to the cat and gave it a pet, the cat snuggled it’s head into Dongmin’s palm.

“Is this your house?” Dongmin asked, the cat pawed at the door. Without thinking Dongmin pressed the doorbell and was about to walk off when he heard someone shout.

“Oh fuck me, Minhyuk. The cat just rang the doorbell!” Dongmin snorted. He bent down to pet the cat once more. He got up to leave when the front door swung open; Dongmin froze, staring at guy in the doorway. He was as tall as him and dressed in a t-shirt coupled with a pair of shorts, a questionable outfit for a cold day. But he was…. cute, to say the least.

“Sorry,” Dongmin apologised, pulling down his face mask. The guy didn’t move, his mouth was slightly agape. Dongmin cleared his throat awkwardly, which snapped the other back to reality.

“Was that you?” he asked, Dongmin nodded. “Oh thank God it wasn’t the c- I mean, why did you ring the bell?”

“Your cat was meowing pretty loudly so I came to check.” Dongmin gestured to the opposite street curb he was just at.

“Oh well, usually she meows when she wants to go back inside after we let her out; but it must’ve been pretty cold for her to meow that loud.”

Dongmin hummed in agreement, the weather was freezing and he could already feel the familiar sting of his lips starting to peel. “I better go. See you around um-” Dongmin realised they hadn’t introduced themselves.

“Moon Bin, first name Bin, last name Moon,” he introduced and stuck his hand out.

“I’m Lee Dongmin.” Dongmin smiled, shaking the man’s hand. “I’m the house over there,” he said, pointing to his home that sat diagonally across from where they were.

“Oh! How come I haven’t seen you around?”

“Moved in with my friend’s a couple weeks ago.” Dongmin shrugged.

“Welcome to the neighbourhood then!”

A gust of wind blew past them making them shiver.

“I have to go or else I’ll die from hypothermia or something.”

Bin nodded. “See you around?”  
“Yeah see you.” Dongmin grinned awkwardly before dashing off to his place.

 

Dongmin unlocked the door to his house, ditching his bag and coat, he slid over to the kitchen to grab a snack. He decided to pop some popcorn, he had just started to heat up the popcorn packet in the microwave when he heard the doorbell ring. Dongmin was confused, he wasn’t expecting anyone or anything at that time; and he knew his housemate, Myungjun, wouldn’t be home until a couple more hours. Edging towards the front door, he opened it slowly to reveal Bin.

“Oh!” he exclaimed. “Hi, Bin.”

“Hey.” he grinned, Bin didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds before his eyes grew wide. “Sorry, uh- you forgot your phone.”

Dongmin blanked. “I did?” he asked, eyebrows furrowing, as he tried to remember how he did.

“Yeah, found it on the floor, it must’ve fallen out of your pocket,” Bin confirmed. “Don’t worry though, the screen is alright.”

Dongmin sighed in relief when Bin handed over his phone. “Thank you.” Bin was about to say something when the microwave went off. “I should get that, thank you again, Bin.”

Bin waved goodbye and walked off. Dongmin hurried to the microwave, taking the packet out, he hissed at the hot packaging and quickly dropped it on the countertop. Rubbing his slightly burning fingertips on his shirt, he heard his phone buzz.

 

_Unknown number_

Hey it’s Bin! I got your number because you

don’t seem to have a lock on your phone?

And you don’t seem to know your number?

 

Breach of privacy because i just met you

but i’ll let it slide because you’re pretty nice

 

_Unknown number_

First impressions always count :)

 

Even when you scream to your housemate

            about how your cat rung the doorbell?

 

_Unknown number_

YOU HEARD THAT? D:

 

Yeah it was loud

 

_Unknown number_

You must think i’m pretty dumb or something :(

 

No no don’t worry it was nice to have a laugh

after a pretty exhausting work day

 

_Unknown number_

That’s a relief!

Cat’s name is Jia btw

 

Oooh that’s a pretty name for your cat

 

_Unknown number_

You can come over anytime to play with her

 

Are you sure i can? What about you housemate?

 

_Unknown number_

It’ll be alright, besides the cat and minhyuk

are practically the same being. They won’t

mind you coming over

 

Cool!

 

_Unknown number_

Hey you should go eat that popcorn you made

 

How did you know i made popcorn?

 

_Unknown number_

I know that smell from miles away

 

Let me guess it’s your favorite snack?

 

_Unknown number_

Correct!

Anyway i have to get going it was nice

talking to you!

 

You too!

 

 **_Add new contact_ ** _?_

 **Yes** **_or_ ** No

 **_New contact added:_ ** _Bin_

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting drunk at Bin's house was not a good idea

Dongmin sat his phone onto the counter and opened the packet of popcorn, he stuffed a handful in his mouth and wandered over to the living room. Sucking on an unwelcome corn kernel and sunk butt heavy into his couch. Flicking on the television, he chewed on the popcorn as he found a channel to settle on. He was in the middle of a movie when his front door burst open and his housemate alerted him of his presence.

“I can hear you just fine Myungjun!”

“Yeah, I know,” Myungjun said, hanging his coat up. “What have you been up to?”  
“Nothing much, have been eating nothing but popcorn and watch t.v.”  
“And yet, you’ve gotten above average grades in school.” Myungjun said, flopping head first into the couch; Dongmin whacked him on the head.

“Hey! I am older than you!”

“Is that your only argument?”

“Doesn’t matter, it’s still rude.” Myungjun pouted.

“Fine, I’m sorry.”  
Myungjun grinned. “That’s better. What else did you do besides being a hermit?”

“Went to work, came back, rung a doorbell for a cat, met Bin, temporarily lost my phone, got it back, and now here I am!”

Myungjun snapped his nodding head to look at Dongmin. “Did you just say Bin?”

“Yes?....” Dongmin squinted at his housemate. “Why?”

“No reason,” Myungjun muttered.

Dongmin blew a couple raspberries in disbelief, onto Myungjun.

“Hey!” Myungjun protested.

“Tell me!”

“Alright! He’s housemates with Jinwoo,” he huffed.

“What really?”

“Yeah, so my boyfriend is literally our neighbour.”

“How did I not know?” Myungjun raised an eyebrow in his direction, and Dongmin was able to answer his own question. He was a hermit. “But that’s nice, we have some sort of friend circle now!”

“Barely,”Myungjun scoffed. “You don’t know the others properly yet.”

“Not my fault!”

Myungjun sighed. “I know.”

 

…

 

Dongmin has always been a high achieving popular student, he had everything: the brains, the grades and on top of that, the looks. Despite all that, he hated the attention he got; not to mention his parents who constantly pushed him to do more with his schooling, he got to the point where he ended up pushing people away from him and not interact as much as he used to. Grades going up, social life going down. The only constant person in his life was Myungjun and at one point Jinwoo who became Myungjun’s partner along the way. Dongmin was grateful that they hung onto him, despite the number of times he lashed out from stress, they were always there for him.

His life was slowly getting more endurable with their help, up until when his parents found out he was gay; it didn’t help that he felt he was falling out of favour with them for suggesting that he might take on an arts course in university. (He ended up taking on a law course to appease them.)

Anyways, his parents found out he was gay because of his ex-boyfriend, he can’t even mention his name without feeling his stomach crawl. They found out because his ex had delightfully entered their home unannounced and drunk as he spilled out everything Dongmin couldn’t tell his parents at that time. His parents had his ex thrown out, while Dongmin tried to explain everything; they told him they will discuss it the next day. Dongmin couldn’t handle what his parents would think and decided to pack and leave his house in the middle of the night, to live in a dorm at his campus; there he stayed quietly for his degrees duration and graduated with high honours, unsurprisingly.

Dongmin then moved into Myungjun’s place and there he was, finding out he has to go to a party because his hermit ass was getting too much for Myungjun.

 

Dongmin got dressed for Jinwoo’s party, his phone buzzing with every text from Bin, who was excited that they could finally see each other in person after two weeks of texting and phone calls. They both knew they could’ve just walked over to either of their houses, but they ended up being busy from work. Dongmin learned that Bin and Minhyuk were dance instructors at the local dance studio; Dongmin found it fascinating that Bin was able to pursue an art degree, while he was stuck with a job that took him to like but wished he was able to pursue a music.

Dongmin in turn talked about his law degree, and Bin seemed eager to know what it was like; which surprised him because nobody that Dongmin has ever met, wanted to hear about his degree, let alone his internship at the nearby law firm. He found it easy to talk to Bin, while Dongmin would falter deciding on what to talk about, Bin had the ability to talk a bit more than he could, which suited them both just fine.

 

Dongmin heard Myungjun yelling for him since it was time to go, he quickly grabbed his phone and exited his room. He followed the bouncing Myungjun out the front door as they walked over to Bin’s house.

“Myungjun calm down or you’ll drop the beverage bag!” Dongmin cautioned.

“Sorry, I’m just excited to see Jinwoo again,”

“But you saw him yesterday,” Dongmin said, confused.

“Yeah, that’s different,”

“You literally went on a date with him!”

Myungjun turned to face him and gestured for him to come closer. Dongmin leaned in and felt Myungjun’s hand squish his cheeks together. “You are so young,”

“I’m only three years younger than you,” Dongmin managed to say.

“A baby who doesn’t understand love,” Myungjun lamented.

“You know I have dated people!”

Myungjun leered. “Yeah, once, to that asshole who you gave everything to but never got anything back, you don’t know real romantic love,” Dongmin winced.

“Ouch, that really hurt,” Dongmin mumbled, cheeks still squished.

Myungjun released his now very sore cheeks. “Sorry, that was a bit too much,”

“Yeah, but it’s true,”

They continued walking and rung the doorbell outside the house, soft vibration of the music bass moved under their feet. The door swung open and Dongmin was face to face with Bin.

“Hey! You’re here!”

“Yeah, had to or else you would’ve been sad and Myungjun would've collapsed from not seeing his boyfriend at least once a day,” he turned to his right to find an empty space in place of where Myungjun just was. “And there he goes,”

Bin laughed and pulled him inside. There were far more people at the party than Dongmin anticipated. Dongmin followed Bin as closely as he could through the crush of people, weaving through to find Bin had lead him to the kitchen area where it was surprisingly less noisy. The other handed him a can of beer and the both of them cracked it open and took a gulp.

“How’ve you been?”

“Busy and tired,”

“So the usual?”

“Pretty much,”

They heard a crash. Bin groaned before telling Dongmin he was going to check out what happened. About 15 minutes had passed since then and Dongmin could not see Bin at all; so, he ventured off elsewhere, he explored the house while not paying too much attention to the alcohol he consumed. He got to the point where he wasn’t sure if he was drunk at all. Dongmin stumbled around the house until he found a room that was empty and sat down heavily on the floor. He heard a small mewl and something small climbed on to his lap, it was Bin’s cat, Jia.

Dongmin could feel himself smile as he stroked the cat’s fur, in his drunken state he could tell his mind was rocking back and forth on what Myungjun said to him just before they got to the house and why Bin took so long to go back to him; it wasn’t long until he felt his tears spill off of his cheeks and on to Jia. He didn’t know why he felt hurt or started crying at all. He roughly rubbed at his face to get rid of the tears, Jia curiously looking at him, probably wondering why he had stopped petting her. He told himself he was just emotional from being stressed and from being in a situation he wasn’t used to.

“Dongmin?” he looked up to see Bin standing in the doorway. The look of surprise and concern on his face set off Dongmin’s tears once more as he hugged Jia closer to his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof  
> 


	3. Chapter 3

Bin was, needless to say, very surprised to see calm and collected Dongmin burst into tears right in front of him. But then again, Dongmin was indeed drunk. Bin had no idea what the next person to enter the room would think if they saw Dongmin crying and cradling Jia while ⅓ of the party hosts was trying to console the weeping guy. 

“Do you want me to get Myungjun?” he asked.

“No, no no,” Dongmin sniffed. “He’ll make fun of me.”

“Then what do you want to do?”

“I don't want to feel hot,”

“What does that even mean?” Dongmin didn't answer him, so Bin guessed he wanted to go outside. Bin hauled the mess of a man up, stumbling some lengths backward as he misjudged Dongmin's weight and his own strength. Bin attempted to steady himself but not before Dongmin face-planted into his stomach, knocking them both down. 

“Geez, Dongmin don't you eat?” he moaned, Dongmin mumbled something that he couldn't quite catch. “What was that?”

Dongmin lifted his face up. “Don't you not exercise? Your abs fucking hurt!” Bin could see that Dongmin didn't look sad anymore and in his eyes was a hint of humour, but he was still drunk and Bin wrinkled his nose at the smell of alcohol on his breath. 

“Bin! Where are you?” The door slammed open and at the doorway was Minhyuk. His eyes widened and he backed out slowly from the room. “I guess I'll leave you two…”

“Wait! Minhyuk it's not what it looks like!” Bin yelled. He scowled at the grin that Minhyuk gave him when he closed the door. Dongmin was still looking at him.

“Come on, let's go outside,” Bin grumbled, fighting a blush and the both of them got up. Bin fastened an arm around Dongmin's waist and walked him out of the room. Dongmin lurched forward a bit.

“Woah, take it easy Min,” Bin said as he adjusted his weight to hold Dongmin’s body upright. 

Dongmin lifted his head and Bin could see him trying to focus his eyes. “We’re already at the nicknames base, huh?” Bin snorted at Dongmin’s remark and held him close until they were outside of the hot house and into the freezing air. Dongmin snuggled in the coat Bin had hastily placed on him once he sat the tipsy boy down. 

“Water?”

“Yes please..” Bin went in and out of the kitchen with two glasses and handed Dongmin his glass and sat quietly as he sipped his drink. 

“Not one for parties are you?”

Dongmin shook his head- “Not really,” -and trained his eyes on the party through the window.

“So, you only came to see me?”   
“Yep,”

“May I ask you why you were crying while hugging my cat?”

Dongmin shrugged, looking unsure as to why he did. “Drank a bit too much?”

“You got that right,” Bin sighed. “Dongmin?” the other looked at him, a slight glaze present in his eyes. “Are you okay?”

Dongmin nodded. “Just need to get soberer,” 

“We got all night and you don’t seem like you will pass out or vomit your guts out anytime soon,”

“No hot drink is what’s keeping me away from getting a bit more sober,” 

“You could’ve just asked,” Bin muttered getting up, Dongmin looked at him and smiled. Bin took note of his smile, Dongmin smiled with his eyes closed and it scrunched his nose a tiny bit as if to say he found it funny that Bin seemed exasperated. Bin smiled back at him before walking back to the kitchen to prepare a ginger tea. The kitchen was empty when Bin got water but it was now occupied by Jinwoo and his boyfriend, Myungjun, casually making out like nobody’s business. 

“Agh, do you have to do that where we make and eat our food?” Bin complained. 

Jinwoo removed himself from Myungjun, both giggly and very drunk. “Sorry Bin,” Jinwoo said and pulled Myungjun out by his hand, the latter waving goodbye. 

Bin sighed to himself and got the kettle boiling. He watched Dongmin while he waited for the water to boil; Dongmin wasn't doing anything in particular just playing with the bits of grass growing in the cracks of the pavement. Bin felt the corners of his mouth twitch, the scene of Dongmin alone made him smile. He poured out the water into the mug and took it outside. Dongmin thanked him and drank the hot tea. 

“You alright now?” 

Dongmin nodded. “Yeah much better,”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Dongmin cleared his throat and put his mug on the ground. He exhaled and Bin could see that he was slightly nervous. “Let’s just say that the life i’m currently living isn’t what I wanted at first,”

“Parents?” Bin asked understanding fully.

“Partly, yes, but there’s also me,” 

Bin cocked his head to the side, confused about what Dongmin meant. “What about you?”

“Um-” Dongmin gestured to his whole being. “Kind of a coward?”

“Coward? How?”

“You may not know but I sort of ran away and cut off contact from my parents about halfway through my first year of uni.” 

“May I ask why?”

Dongmin shook his head, “Not yet, I was scared of some of the consequences in relation to me,”

“Understandable,”

“I really do love my internship and the career path does interest me now and I probably bore you to no end hearing me talk about the happenings of my day; I just wonder what if? What if I didn’t take on the law degree and followed another path? Ugh- dammit I’m just drunk ranting to you, i’ll stop now.” Dongmin buried his head in his hands, Bin laid his hand on Dongmin’s shoulder. 

“Hey listen, first you absolutely do not bore me at all, second you should take it easy before you go into existential crisis mode, and thirdly if you had done those things instead of what had lead you to today, you probably wouldn’t have met me.” Bin did a flower hand pose.

Dongmin giggled, “Yeah, I wouldn’t have met you-” Dongmin turned to face him, “-you’re a really good friend you know that right?”

“Of course I am! I didn’t put my number in your phone just so we can’t be friends!” the both of them laughed and then eased into a comfortable silence. Bin noticed that Dongmin’s teeth had begun to chatter. “Okay, come on let’s get you home.”

“Do I have to?” Dongmin pouted.

“Yes? It's cold out here,”

“Okay,- wait hold on,” he said as he scrambled to a nearby bush. Bin winced at the sound of Dongmin retching.

“Are you alright?” Bin asked, once Dongmin walked back to him.

“Never better.” 

The both of them walked over to Dongmin’s house.

“You know that little mess you made is going to freeze over right?”

“Don’t remind me, I don’t even know why I thought it would’ve a good idea,”

“Unfamiliar situations holds for such a thing such as drinking too much,” 

“Shut up,” Dongmin chuckled, nudging Bin in the shoulder. “Never again, next time you see me at a party please don’t leave me alone.”

“Sure, I’d rather not see you cry again either,”

Dongmin ducked his head before peering out from under his fringe, “Can we forget today happened? If that’s alright with you?”

“All of it?”

Dongmin shook his head, “the bad parts.”

“I understand, don't worry-” Bin waved goodbye, “-see you, Min.” and walked back to his house.  

 

The party was still going when Bin opened the door, music loud but not enough to get the cops called on them. He sat down on the couch next to Minhyuk who was busy battling it out with Sanha over Smash Bros.

“How did it go with the pretty neighbour?” Minhyuk asked.

“There’s nothing going on with me and Dongmin, if that's what you're asking, and stop nicknaming him the pretty neighbour,”

“Why? Do you not think he's good looking?”

“I'm not answering that question,” Bin huffed.

“Well it didn't look like nothing when I walked in on you two,”

“Because it was nothing,”

“Pfft, whatever,”

“He was drunk when I found him and he's incredibly light for someone that tall so he fell on top of me when I tried to get him up,”

Minhyuk laughed, hard.

“Shut up,”

“Can't- YEAH TAKE THAT SANHA I WIN,” Minhyuk howled in delight. The tall boy sitting next to him groaned.

“How did you manage to beat me while talking to Bin about his love life,”

“Because i’m that skilled and can totally multi-task,”

“What do you mean by my love life? I’m not in love with anyone!” Bin said, the other two ignored him; Minhyuk was too busy gloating about his gamer skills, while Sanha lamented his own loss. “Okay, fine, I’ll leave you two love birds and go to bed,” his statement shut the both of them up. They gawked at him, both stuttering and stumbling over their words in protest as their skin flushed bright red. Bin grinned triumphantly and got up from where he was sitting and headed upstairs to his room. By that time it was way past midnight and the guests were dwindling in number. Bin jumped on to his bed, not bothering to change. He felt Jia nudge his hand, and he reached over to pick her up. After a couple of moments, he groaned with the realisation that i t was going to be hell for him to clean up later. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow sorry for the overdue chapter D:


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You alright?” Dongmin asked quietly.  
> “Hm? Just tired that’s all.” Bin replied.  
> “He’s usually tired after we have big workshops like today.” Minhyuk informed. “He can literally fall asleep anywhere!”  
> “I do not!” Bin protested.  
> “Yeah, you totally did not fall asleep on top of the dining table or smack dab in the middle of the hallway tripping me over,” Jinwoo chipped in.  
> “Seriously?” Dongmin questioned, laughing at the imagery in his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay i'm back with a longer chapter!

Dongmin woke with a start, and flinched at the blinding sunlight that streamed into his room. Cursing, he fell back into his bed; he stared at his ceiling for some time as he tried to wake up. He rolled over to his bedside table to check his phone. He groaned inwardly when he realised he had at least an hour to get ready before he has to be at work. Sliding out of bed, he got dressed. Usually after he's downstairs to make breakfast, he would see Myungjun making coffee; but the older didn't seem to have come home at all last night and his suspicions were confirmed with an unread drunken text message from the wee hours in the morning. So, Dongmin made himself food and ate quickly. He knew he had to take a taxi to get to work if he wanted to be on time. He called one up and waited outside.

While he waited, he felt a pair of hands grab his shoulders, shouting in surprise, Dongmin turned to see Bin laughing his head off.

“Asshole,” Dongmin muttered darkly.

“Good morning to you too,” Bin replied. Dongmin looked at him and noticed his eyes were slightly red, and the usually smoothe hair was ruffled all over.

“How long did the party last?”

“Dunno, fell asleep before I could tell.”

“Seemed like it, what're you doing awake anyway? It's barely seven.”

“Clean up, and other shit.” he shrugged.

“But now?”

“Gotta get a head start before the Rock and Captain make it worse, by the way how're you not hungover?”

“Early night remember? Didn't make it past ten.” Bin nodded.

“Yeah it was crazy seeing you drunk.”

Dongmin made a noise, he felt his ears burn. “Please don't bring it up.”

“Oh yeah sorry!”

Dongmin checked his phone, his taxi was about to arrive.

“Hey, Min?”

Dongmin glanced up at Bin. “Yes?”

Bin opened his mouth; but whatever was supposed to come out never came because Dongmin’s taxi arrived at that moment.

“Sorry, Bin I need to go.”

“Don't worry about it. See you later.” he waved cheerily.

“See you,” Dongmin said and got in his taxi.

 

…

 

A third pile of court cases were dumped next to Dongmin.

“Sort these out,” his supervisor uttered out before she left the room. His co-worker looked at Dongmin with sympathy in his eyes before going back to work.

Dongmin rubbed the sides of his head, a headache was starting to form and he had no idea why. Stretching his back and arms, he got down to work. He received a text from Bin towards the middle of his sorting asking how it was going. Dongmin realised that he was working in the middle of his usual lunch break. Cursing quietly he told Bin that he had not eaten lunch yet and was still working. After a couple of frantically written texts from Bin asking why he didn't eat or rest from working non-stop, Dongmin's phone became quiet and he continued to work on sorting and filing documents.

It was an hour passed his initial lunch break when the company’s receptionist called to tell him that someone was waiting for him. Dongmin's stomach grumbled in hunger but he ignored it and got up. Coat in hand he made he way to the reception, he stalled when he saw who was waiting for him. It was Bin and he looked less unruly than he did when Dongmin saw him last.

“Hey!” Bin greeted. Dongmin greeted him back albeit confused about why he was there in the first place.

“Dongmin, this lovely lady has been telling me how she doesn't see you go out to eat lunch during your lunch breaks.”

Dongmin side eyed the receptionist, who smirked at him. “Forgive me, it's the motherly instincts in me.”

Dongmin in turn gave Bin the same look.

“Don't give me that look, you have to eat let's go.”

Dongmin reluctantly followed as Bin pulled his arm.

Dongmin bowed his head quickly at some of his seniors on their way out of the building.

“Where are we going?” Dongmin asked once Bin slowed down at the crossing.

Panting, Bin pointed to a quaint little cafe across the road. Dongmin squinted his eyes to make out the name “ _The Vanilla Bean_ ”. After the pedestrian crossing light turned green, they weaved their way through the crowd.

“Okay, here we are,” Bin declared.

The two of them entered the cafe and Dongmin’s senses were overwhelmed by the sweet scent of vanilla. The cafe felt homey and was furnished with antiqued tables and comfy looking chairs and couches.

“What're we doing here?”

Raising an eyebrow, Bin poked him in the stomach, releasing a low grumble from the depths of his abdomen. Bin cocked his head to one side, a smirk playing on his lips; as if to say “Do I need to answer that?” Dongmin felt his ears burn.

“Is that my Binnie I see?” A voice spoke and an older woman walked out from behind the counter.

Bin hurried over to give her a hug. “Hi Auntie,” he greeted.

“And who's this young man you brought to our cafe?”

“This is Dongmin, he's a friend.”

Dongmin quickly walked over to greet her and shook her hand. “Hello.”

“Oh, how polite of you.” She smiled and leaned towards Bin to whisper to him. Bin's eyes grew wide and a small bloom of pink formed on his cheeks. But Bin's aunt didn't pay mind to her nephew and continued to ask Dongmin a bunch of questions about his life. Dongmin was saved when Bin managed to interject and tell his aunt that Dongmin hasn't eaten anything since breakfast. This resulted in a slightly stern scolding from her while she got her employees to quickly make a meal.

Bin brought Dongmin over to a booth in the corner and sat down. Dongmin felt himself sink into the cushions.

“So, are you going to tell me or am I going to just accept the food and eat?” Dongmin asked after they sat in silence for a few moments.

“Don't be like that, we’ll eat first then talk,” Bin said.

His aunt appeared a couple seconds later with a tray full of food. Thanking her, the two of them wolfed down the sandwiches and cake that was handed to them. With his stomach pleased, Dongmin quietly drank his tea while he waited for Bin to finish eating.

“Is that always how much you eat?” Dongmin questioned once Bin put the last bite of his fourth cake slice into his mouth. Bin, not being able to answer due to his full mouth, smiled, puffed cheeks and all. Dongmin laughed at the ridiculous look. Bin frowned at him and swallowed his food.

“Yes, I have a really big stomach and dancing coupled with a gym routine burns a lot.”

“I think I've kinda guessed that.” Bin picked up a small piece of leftover lettuce off his plate and flicked it at him. “Hey,” Dongmin protested. “Now that’s a waste of food.”

“Ha Ha,” Bin replied. “How was the food?”

“Awesome, it was really good.”

Bin nodded. They sat quietly once more as they finished their tea.

“I used to work here before I got the job at the dance studio,” Bin said after the dishes were cleared away.

“How long?” Dongmin asked.

“Started when I was around ten and worked until I got the job last year.”

“Why did you start that young?” Dongmin inwardly flinched when he saw Bin’s smile falter. “Which you don’t have to answer, by the way,” he quickly corrected although curiosity consumed his mind.

“No, it’s fine.” Bin assured. “But we should head back to your work before you get chewed out by your supervisor.”

Dongmin took a glance at his phone and saw that Bin was right. They got up to leave and waved goodbye to Bin’s aunt after paying for their food. They hurried back to Dongmin’s building.

“Bin go to bed,” Dongmin said just as the other let out a mighty yawn.   
“I will, I just needed to make sure you are eating food.”   
“Well, thank you for taking me out to eat.”

Bin smiled at him, eyes looking droopier than they were an hour ago. “You’re welcome.”

“Now I insist you go home and nap,” Dongmin said pushing him a little towards the street.  
“Yes, Sir.” Bin mocked saluted and waved before leaving.

Dongmin shook his head, a small grin tugged at his lips while he headed back to his desk. No longer dying of hunger and his head in the right place, Dongmin finished his task faster than he had earlier that day. He was told by his supervisor that he could leave early because he completed the day's worth of work. Tired but feeling accomplished, Dongmin went home.

 

...

 

He entered his house and heard that Myungjun was home.

“Hey loser, you're home early.” He heard the elder call out.

“Yeah, my supervisor let me go because I finished my daily task earlier than expected.”

“That's great Min!”

“What are you doing by the way?” Dongmin asked and halted once he saw Myungjun hurriedly putting a shirt back on with Jinwoo next to him doing the same. “Oh.”

“Hey Dongmin.” Jinwoo waved.

“Can you two stop canoodling? Don't you have jobs?” Dongmin groaned.

“You know we do and I took a sick day and Jinwoo didn't have work today,” Myungjun informed.

“Well that doesn't mean you have to-” Dongmin gestured at them. “- and on the couch too.”

“We're dressed don't worry and you know if it got any farther it would be upstairs in my room right?”

Dongmin shuddered.

“Don't answer that.” Myungjun sighed. “Go shower and eat a snack you look dead.”

“Yes, mum,” Dongmin said and headed upstairs.

After he was done, he jogged down the stairs to grab a snack that Myungjun had set out.

“Hey, Dongmin?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you bring Jia with you?”

Dongmin swallowed his food, confused. “No, why? I came straight from work.”

“Because she's here.”

“What the fuck.” Dongmin thought and rushed over to where Myungjun was, watching Jia play with a sock. Noticing that Dongmin was there, the cat stopped playing with the lone sock and ran over and up Dongmin's shoulder.

“Was the window open?”

“Not at all, she probably followed you in when you got home.”

“Probably,” Dongmin agreed. “I'll take her back to Bin then.”

“You should, Jinwoo's allergic and she's usually out of the house or in Bin's room when he's at home so he practically bolted to the bathroom when he saw her.”

“Alright we'll get going, so Myungjun can get his boyfriend back. Isn't that right Jia?” He cooed and petted her head. He quickly exited the house before Myungjun could throw something at him.

A muffled “I can breathe!” echoed in the house.

Jia switched to Dongmin's other shoulder when he got to her owner's house. He rung the bell and waited for someone to answer the door.

The door swung open a couple seconds later to reveal Bin, hair messy as if he just got out of bed, which was probable.

“Jia snuck into our house.” Dongmin explained when Bin looked at him with confusion.

“Figured. Thanks for bringing her anyway.”

“Did you just get up from your nap?”

“Yep and it was great.”

“It's almost 6.”

“Even better.”

Dongmin snorted and handed Jia over to the still messy haired man.

“See you later Bin,” Dongmin said and went home.

Re-entering his house, he flipped down next to the resident couple and watched mindless television as they ate dinner.

He later got a text from Bin asking if it was alright to meet the next day during his lunch break to eat out again; Dongmin said yes.

 

…

 

It quickly became a thing for them to meet at lunch to eat at the Vanilla Bean and they had no complaints. Dongmin needed to eat at suitable times and Bin didn't teach his lessons until 7pm so it worked fine for them.

“Hey, are you free tonight?” Bin asked as they walked back to Dongmin's workplace. “Because I was wondering if would you mind coming over to the dance studio? Minhyuk and I have a dance workshop going on and I want you to watch.”

“Sure, I'll love to go.”

“Awesome, I'll text the address and what time.” Bin grinned excitedly. “See you tonight Min!” he said and hugged him before dashing off.

Dongmin waved goodbye awkwardly and went inside, ignoring the look from the receptionist.

As Dongmin worked he didn't realise he was counting down until it was time to go.

Nearly zooming past his co-workers, he jumped into the nearest taxi and headed to Bin and Minhyuk's dance studio. Upon arrival, Dongmin stopped to calm the nerves he did not realise he was feeling. This was his first time visiting Bin in a place that does not have Jia or alcohol to use as an excuse to not interact with people.

 

Dongmin~

I’m here!

Bin~

IM ON MY WAY

 

Dongmin pocketed his phone and nearly smacked into Bin at the doorway.

“Ah shit, sorry.”

“It’s fine, our beautiful faces aren’t damaged. Now let’s go.”

Dongmin followed him through the entrance and straight to the studio. He was met with the booming of music through a subwoofer and cheers from a group of people while someone danced in the middle of the floor. Still stunned by the transition from the quiet night to the loud studio, Dongmin let Bin lead him to the side of the room to sit down. With a clearer view, Dongmin realised that in the middle was Minhyuk and Jinwoo. Dongmin honest to God did not know that Jinwoo could dance, and was very surprised to see a different side to him. Dongmin saw Bin's lips move but he wasn't paying attention. Bin went into the middle, the cheers and hollering of the class erupting around him while the next song played.

The time between the song starting and Bin’s dancing slowed, and the small jab of his arm started the performance. Dongmin was completely transfixed by Bin’s dancing and he had no idea why. While Jinwoo was strong but agile and Minhyuk was graceful, Bin was the perfect middle to them. Powerful and charismatic was what he was and Dongmin felt his hairs stand on end. He didn’t realise he was frozen on the spot until the performance ended and was brought back to the world by the applause. He continued to watch the workshop in awe with all the dance performances and short lessons.

“What did you think?” Bin asked after the group was dismissed.

Dongmin then let loose a torrent of compliments sprinkled with profanity because he was utterly amazed by him. With every word that flew out of his mouth, he did not notice Bin grow redder each time. When Jinwoo and Minhyuk came over to greet him, Dongmin directed his word vomit of compliments to them. They laughed and thanked him before Jinwoo offered to take him home with the rest of them.

After the studio was closed, they piled into Jinwoo’s car and drove off. Jinwoo was jamming to whatever song was playing on the radio while Minhyuk tried to turn it down to no avail; Bin was uncharacteristically quiet the entire drive.

“You alright?” Dongmin asked quietly.

“Hm? Just tired that’s all.” Bin replied.

“He’s usually tired after we have big workshops like today.” Minhyuk informed. “He can literally fall asleep anywhere!”

“I do not!” Bin protested.

“Seriously?” Dongmin questioned, laughing at the imagery in his head.

“Yeah, you totally did not fall asleep on top of the dining table or smack dab in the middle of the hallway tripping me over,” Jinwoo chipped in.

Bin grumbled but kept quiet while Jinwoo pulled up in their driveway. Dongmin got out of the car, saying goodbye to the trio and walked back to his house.

 

...

 

It was a couple days later when Dongmin saw Bin next; over the weekend Dongmin was busy and Bin went to visit his dad. They had met at their usual time during Dongmin’s lunch break and Dongmin felt there was something different in the atmosphere but he took it as Bin being tired from travelling.

Unlocking his door, Dongmin walked in and jumped on to his couch. Before he could reach for the TV remote, Dongmin heard his phone ring from his bag. Skidding across the floor, Dongmin saw it was Bin and answered it.

 

“Hello?”

“Hey, Dongmin! How was work?”

“It was longer than expected but good.”

“Because you saw me today?”

“Oh shut up.” Dongmin could almost here Bin smirk.

“Anyway, I was wondering if you'd like to come over? Jinwoo and Minhyuk aren't here.”

“And?”

“Oh come on, can't you hear I'm lonely?”

“It’s nearly 10, Bin. Don't you have Jia?”

“I need human contact, now please can you come? I really want to talk.”

“Okay, fine.” Dongmin felt there was something off from Bin’s voice and choice of words.

“Yay!” Bin exclaimed before hanging up.

 

Dongmin walked over to Bin's house and knocked on the door. He heard a squawk and a thud before the door opened.

“Hey,” Bin greeted, panting and face bright red.

“What happened?”

Bin's eyes widened and seemed to hesitate. “I tripped over Jia,” Bin finally muttered.

Mock gasping, Dongmin rushed in and scooped Jia into his arms. “Poor baby, did that certified dancer trip over you?” Dongmin asked, snickering at the noise Bin made in protest to his teasing. Jia looked at him and raised a paw to tap his nose. Dongmin cooed and brought her close to his chest as he stroked her fur.

“Hey, that's my baby you're holding.”

“Not anymore,” Dongmin decided and shielded Jia away from him.

“Alright, whatever. Do you want a drink? I have snacks on the table.”

“Water's fine, thanks.”

Bin exited into the kitchen, grumbling about how he raised the cat since she was a kit and never felt so betrayed in his life; while Dongmin sat down in the living room with Jia in his lap.

“So, what was it that you wanted to talk about?” Dongmin asked when Bin returned.

“Oh, yeah from earlier…” Bin trailed off and Dongmin took notice of it.

“What's wrong?” He asked.

Bin sat down heavily next to him and Dongmin let Jia crawl off his lap and on to her owner's.

“I’m ready to tell you about why started work when I was 10.”

“Oh. Okay.” Bin inhaled and exhaled a shaky breath slowly, Dongmin felt tense but hoped it did not show as he focused on Bin.

“I was ten when my parents divorced, and my mum had custody over me. It wasn't a bitter one, but mum and dad knew it wasn't going to work out. Mum moved in closer to my grandparents and worked with my aunt.-” Bin pulled Jia closer to his body and sunk into the couch. “- I started to work part-time at the Vanilla Bean to be useful and studied hard so I can support her later. At least Dad sent in money to fund some of our living expenses, could've been worse I guess.”

Dongmin didn't say anything.

“And then my mum got sick but she did not say anything. One day she coughed so badly and collapsed it warranted my aunt to close the cafe early and call the ambulance, she always said she was okay.” Bin sniffed and Dongmin was alarmed at the sight of tears dripping from his friend's eyes. “Turned out she had some sort of virus and it was too late.”

“Do you know what it was?” Dongmin asked cautiously.

“Hell would I remember. It was some sort of virus that she left unchecked until her body gave way.” Bin then began to rub viciously at his eyes. “Min, today's the day she died and I don't want to be alone. Usually Minhyuk and Jinwoo are here but they can't today. So-” Bin inhaled sharply, cutting his sentence.

Dongmin wrapped his arms around him and held on until Bin stopped crying. Now that Dongmin thought about it, Bin looked a little reserved and not as loud and happy when he last saw him and he felt guilty of the fact that he made an effort to make sure he ate lunch instead of taking time for himself.

“Do you want to do something?”

“Can we watch a movie?” Bin half mumbled into his shoulder.

“Okay, I'll set the TV up.”

Dongmin chose a superhero film to take Bin's mind off for the time being. Dongmin hadn't realised it at the time but sometime through the shockingly 3 hour long movie, Bin had buried himself into his side and had fallen asleep. With Jia nestled in his lap, asleep herself, Dongmin was trapped. Seeing no way out, he sent a text to Myungjun to tell him he won't be home until much later, claiming that Jia was asleep on him and cannot move and not that Bin was sleeping on him too. His eyes feeling heavy from the calm environment, Dongmin fell asleep as well.

Dongmin woke up when he heard the soft click of the front door closing, Jia was already off his lap to greet whoever it was and Bin had shifted so that he was lying on the arm of the couch and not Dongmin's shoulder. Dongmin was confused by the rush of disappointment he felt, but quickly squashed it and got up to see who came inside.

He found Minhyuk petting Jia and whispered greeting to him. The younger boy jumped, surprised that Dongmin was in the house.

“What're you doing here?” He questioned.

“Bin invited me over,” Dongmin answered.

Both eyebrows raised, Minhyuk gestured for Dongmin to follow him to the kitchen.

“So he told you then huh? About his mum?” Minhyuk asked leaning against the kitchen counter.

“Yeah, wasn't expecting it but I'm glad he told me.”

“He was close to his mum, like really close. She was nice.”

“You've met her?”

“Oh yeah, I've known Bin since we were kids. His mum was friends with mine.” Minhyuk smiled a little.

“I'm just realising we haven't had much of a conversation before.”

“I don't mind, it looks like we're kinda the same in terms of social interactiveness.”

“You're probably right.”

Minhyuk offered a drink to which Dongmin politely declined as he needed to go back to his house.

“Alright see you then, thanks for hanging out with Bin.”

“Does he usually have nobody here during this time?”

“It's me usually, but I had to teach the class today and Jinwoo's work is on the other side of the city.”

Dongmin nodded and waved as he walked out of the kitchen. He passed by the couch Bin was still sleeping on, and smiled at scene presented before him. Jia was curled on his chest and Bin’s gentle breathing moved her up and down. The cat must’ve sensed him looking because she lifted up her head, her right ear flicking as she watched him. Dongmin moved quietly to scratch under her chin, the tortoiseshell nuzzled her head into his palm and licked his hand. Still smiling Dongmin left her and Bin alone and out of the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi thanks to those who sent me messages and i'm happy to let y'all know that my grandfather is doing well! also i hope you enjoyed this chapter (maybe)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “God, it’s been such a shitty week for me. Do you think we’ll ever find her?”  
> “Have faith, Bin. Who knows how fast we’ll get her home after today.” A gust of wind blew past them, making Bin shiver badly. “I have another umbrella, we should head back before you get sick,” Dongmin suggested.  
> “Too late,” Bin said and let out a sneeze.  
> “Aw you sneeze like a kitten.”  
> “May I remind you that I can take you out even if I am sick.”  
> “Sweet, where to?” Bin's mouth opened after the words left Dongmin's mouth.  
> “What was that?”  
> “Nothing…”

Dongmin was busy logging in details into his computer when his supervisor called for him. Nerves danced through his body as he followed her into her office.

“Please sit, Mr. Lee.” Dongmin stumbled a bit on the way to chair and heard his supervisor sigh. “Relax, this is good news I’m giving you.”

“Sorry.”

“You’ve been with us as an intern for a month and half already and we are very grateful to have someone like you working with us. I have asked you to come here today to offer you an assignment that could give you a place here.”

“What is the assignment?”

“If you wish to stay with us after your internship ends, you will have to take on an imaginary case and you’ll have to present it to the board.”

“The board?” Dongmin murmured. 

“Yes, you’ll present your case and try to convince the directors of your reasoning and if they like it they’ll offer you a place in this firm. Do you accept the challenge?”

“Yes, Ms. Choi,” he said a bit too eager.

His supervisor smiled. “It will be emailed and you will have until the week your internship ends. Good luck.” 

Dongmin bowed his head and exited the office. Sitting back at his desk, he opened the new email he received. He read through the content with a grin on his face. He had to defend an embezzlement case. Nothing too bad, he thought. Having finished his actual tasks, he left time to work on his case. His phone buzzed indicating that Bin was on his way to the office and go to the Vanilla Bean with him. 

Excitement flowing through him as he desperately wants to tell Bin that he might be able continue working in the law firm. 

“Bin!” he shouted accidentally when he saw him at the receptionist’s desk and quickly covered his mouth, cheeks flaming as he bowed in apology to his seniors who were just passing by. They shook their heads in amusement as they watched him run over to the other boy. Dongmin dragged Bin out of the building while the other laughed.

“What was that about?” Bin asked when they stopped.

“My supervisor said that they may employ me if I can convince them with this mock case.”

“No way! Seriously? That’s awesome Min! Let’s go get a celebratory milkshake!”

“But don’t I need to get the job first before we celebrate?   
Bin shook his head. “Nope, because I know you’ll ace the assignment and get the job!”

Dongmin tried to fight the smile that grew but it was no use. “Thanks, let’s go then.”

When they arrived, Bin called for his aunt and told her the news, Dongmin blushing in embarrassment told them it was okay and shouldn’t bother so much. But like Bin his aunt congratulated him and ushered the two of them to the staff room for privacy to celebrate and brought the milkshakes for him to drink. While they drank their milkshakes and ate cake quietly, Dongmin snuck out his phone and opened the camera app.

“Bin lookup.” Startled the other looked with his food filled cheeks and Dongmin snapped a photo. “Gotcha.” he grinned. “Look at you,” he said as he pointed his phone towards Bin. 

Bin swallowed his food and whined as he tried to grab Dongmin’s phone. Dongmin locked his phone and hid it back in his pocket. Bin pouted at him while he carried on eating.  _ Cute _ , Dongmin thought. He nearly choked on his milkshake at the sudden thought of him thinking Bin was cute. 

“You alright?” Bin asked, lips quirked in amusement. 

“Yeah,” Dongmin replied hoarsely. “The milkshake went down wrongly, wasn’t paying attention.”

Bin shook his head at him and finished the rest of the cakes. “Alright, you should head back to work.” 

“I should,” Dongmin agreed. They gathered the plates and glasses and put them in the sink before paying and thanking Bin’s aunt and leaving the cafe.

When Dongmin’s office came into view, Dongmin thanked Bin by giving him a hug, surprising the both of them. Clearing his throat, Bin thanked him for the other night as well and waved goodbye. When Dongmin sat back down at his desk, he groaned inwardly at what happened and laid his forehead on the desk.  _ What is up with me today? _

“Please don’t tell me you already broke your brain over the assignment.” he heard his supervisor say.

He lifted his head and shook it. “No, don’t worry.”

“Okay then, get back to work.” Dongmin sighed and did as he was told.

 

...

 

Dongmin kicked the door shut and thanked the gods in the sky that it was already the weekend. 

“How’s work?” Dongmin heard Myungjun ask.

“Good. How was yours?”

“Same old accounting. Anyway, Jinwoo is going to take me out on a date so, don’t wait up.”

“Okay,” Dongmin said and headed upstairs to shower.

Couple hours later and engrossed in his assignment, Dongmin did not notice his phone go off until the fifth ring. He found out that Bin had been calling him. Quickly answering it, he put the phone to his ear.

“Yeah?”   
“Hey, Dongmin have you seen Jia lately?”

“No? Not since I was at your place couple days ago. Why?”

“Shit, can you come over?”

“Bin what’s happening?”

“Please Dongmin,” Bin said and hung up.

Confused, Dongmin rushed over to Bin’s house.

“She hasn’t been home for nearly a week,” Bin said when he opened the door.

“How long does she usually disappear for?”

“Only ever a day, she doesn’t like going anywhere but the house, yours and the neighbourhood.”

“Maybe she decided to stay out longer.”   
“Yeah that’s what I thought, that’s why I didn’t say anything until today,” Bin sighed.

“Well what do you want to do?”

“I had her food out in case, but it wasn’t even touched. I’ve planned to go out tonight to search for her.”

“Do you need help?”

“Yeah, the others decided to search tomorrow as it would be daytime. Which is reasonable.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t go tonight as well.”

“You’re right,” Bin agreed and slumped on to his couch. Dongmin joined him and turned on the television. “Jia was my mum’s.”

“Oh.”

“Jia was still a kitten when mum died, so she’s one of the few things I have left to remind me of her.”

Dongmin nodded and the two of them grew quiet as they watched whatever was on the television. He didn’t mean to, but he fell asleep. He only woke to giggling, slowly opening his eyes, he saw Jinwoo and Minhyuk hovering over him. He noticed he was lying down instead of sitting up when he had fallen asleep and a weight pressed around his waist. Craning his neck, he found Bin lying on top of him. 

“What are you two doing?” Dongmin asked the two of them when he turned his head away from the sleeping guy.

“Blackmail,” Minhyuk stated.

Dongmin groaned and tried to unlatch Bin’s limbs; but they were too strong.

“Having trouble there, Dongmin?” Jinwoo asked, grinning.

“You might want to get cozy, he’ll probably not wake up until tomorrow morning,” Minhyuk said, sharing a similar facial expression to Jinwoo.

“Why are you both smiling like that?”

“No reason. You should get some rest since we’re all going to search for Jia tomorrow,” Jinwoo replied and left the room followed by Minhyuk.

Letting out a slightly frustrated sigh, Dongmin eased back down into the couch and tried to go back to sleep. 

 

…

 

Dongmin woke up again when he felt Bin stir and heard a quiet  _ Ah, fuck. _ But he kept his eyes closed. The other eased himself off and place a blanket on top to replace the lost body warmth that emitted from himself over the night. Dongmin wanted to get up then, but he didn’t want it to be awkward and stayed still. He listened to Bin move around the house, and turn on the stove in the kitchen, presumably to make breakfast. He stayed there until he felt something tickle his nose, swatting at whatever it was, he sat straight up. Every joint in his body cracked and he winced at the loud sound.

“Now that’s not a pretty sound,” Bin observed, still standing above him.

“That’s what happens when one is unable to move because of a certain person latched on to them the whole night,” Dongmin said and proceeded to loosen his joints. 

“Sorry,” Bin laughed shyly.

“I can tell.” 

“You want some pancakes?”

“Yes please.” 

Dongmin followed him and was met with a mountain of pancakes before him. Some were burnt but the majority did not look so bad. He raised an eyebrow at Bin, to which he replied with a shrug.

“I have a 60% success rate when it comes to cooking.”

“That I’ll believe,” Dongmin laughed and proceeded to take some. His eyes widened in surprise when he took a bite.

“Is it that bad?” Bin asked slightly nervous.

Dongmin shook his head. “No it's really good.”

“Thanks,” Bin said, his smile growing and took some to eat as well. 

Jinwoo and Minhyuk joined the two of them some time later to eat.

“What's the plan, Bin?” Jinwoo asked after a while.

“I've already searched the area on a small radius; but haven't ventured farther than that.”

“We know Jia doesn't like anywhere but our house and this neighborhood-” Minhyuk began.

“And my house,” Dongmin added.

Jinwoo furrowed his eyebrows. “So should we start posting the posters? We might have better success if we do so. Getting people to look out for her.”

“Should I call Sanha then?”

“Yeah that would be great, Minhyuk,” Jinwoo said.

“I'll go get Myungjun then.” Dongmin got up and went back to his house.

Dongmin reached for his keys and met nothing in his pocket. Sighing, he rung the doorbell and waited for Myungjun to get it. When he did, Dongmin grabbed his hand and pulled him towards Bin's house. 

“Can you explain why I'm being dragged over to Jinwoo's house?” Myungjun asked.

“We need help putting out posters for Jia.”

“Couldn’t you have just asked like a normal person instead of dragging me out like some sort of caveman? And I hope you have the keys.”

“Of course I don’t that’s why I knocked.”

“Well good job, because I don’t have mine either.”

“Oh...” Dongmin stopped. “Shit, that means-”

“Yeah, we’re locked out of our house, Dongmin.” Myungjun folded his arms. “So what do we do now?”

“Surprise sleepover with the others?” Dongmin asked, sheepishly. Myungjun glared at him as he marched towards the other house. Dongmin followed him, slapping a hand to his face in embarrassment.

“Junnie!” Jinwoo exclaimed, when they were let inside. Dongmin watched the oldest of them grow very red as his boyfriend went up to him. 

“Hey, Jinjin,” Myungjun murmured quietly. Dongmin found the floor very interesting, as Jinwoo kissed Myungjun in greeting.

“You looked mad, what happened?” Jinwoo asked.

“Dongmin locked us out of our house and the locksmith is closed,” Myungjun huffed. “Is it alright if we stay over? Until I can call them?”

“Sure, we’ll get the couch ready after we get back from putting up the flyers,” Jinwoo agreed.

“Where’s Bin?” Dongmin asked.

“With Minhyuk creating the posters.”

“Don’t you think Myungjun could help with his unutilised artistic abilities?” Dongmin mentioned only slightly wincing when Myungjun punched him in the arm.

“Oh yeah, you’re right let’s go then,” Jinwoo said and lead them to the study. 

When they got there, they found Bin and Minhyuk squabbling.

“Friends for years but fighting like they can’t stand each other,” Jinwoo sighed. Before he could break them up, the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it,” Minhyuk said almost running out of the room.

Dongmin, Myungjun and Jinwoo all focused on the slightly ruffled guy in front of them. “What were you guys fighting about?” Jinwoo asked.

“Over which font to use on the posters,” Bin said, rolling his eyes. “He wanted to use Comic Sans like some sort of nutcase.”

Dongmin snorted out a laugh while Jinwoo groaned as if he was in pain and Myungjun was already on his way to the desktop to fix the layout. When Minhyuk came back, he had who must be Sanha following closely behind. Dongmin’s jaw nearly dropped at how tall the kid was.

“Oh you must be Dongmin, I’m Sanha.” Sanha introduced. “It’s nice to meet you!” the kid’s enthusiasm rolled out in waves and Dongmin was smiling when he greeted him back.

“Woah, Dongmin, you’ve got someone to rival your height!” Myungjun said.

“Yeah, I’m not going to retaliate because i’ll get more hurt than satisfaction in making fun of your height.” 

Myungjun stuck his tongue out at him. “Okay, back to work. Who thinks Comic Sans is a good font to use?” Minhyuk and Sanha held their hand up. “Who’s in favour of every other suitable font?” Dongmin, Bin, Jinwoo and Myungjun held their hand up.

“Alright fine,” Minhyuk gave in. “What do we use instead?”

“Helvetica?” Bin suggested.

“Let’s go with that then.” Myungjun typed away on the keyboard. “We need an award, how much are you willing to give?”

“We shouldn’t give the price yet, who knows what people will do if we say,” Dongmin stated. Everyone nodded their heads. 

“Bin come here and put in the details for identification and contacts,” Myungjun said and switched places with Bin. “Choose the picture as well.”

“Minhyuk go with Sanha and buy some fluorescent paper and lots of tape from the stationary store, it’ll be easier for people to notice the poster.” the two of them got up and left. “And Dongmin can you help Bin list out places to put out the posters?”

“I can do that,” Dongmin confirmed and sat out in the living room; Bin joined him with a laptop in hand. “Are you alright?” After Bin sat down.

Bin turned to look at him, smiling. “I am.” He focused back on the map on the laptop screen. “Okay, we should put out posters in the small shopping district, and every other public place in this area. It’s very unlikely that she would make it to the city so we should keep it around there.”

 

They were in the middle of writing down the locations when Minhyuk and Sanha burst into the house and ran into the study. With the paper and tape in possession, the group was able to print out an almost ungodly amount of posters and head out to their assigned areas.

Myungjun and Jinwoo had the neighbourhood, Minhyuk had the mini-shopping mall and his social media account because he had more followers than the rest of them, Bin had the park, Sanha had the supermarket and Dongmin was to put up the posters at bus stops and on lamp posts. When the group separated, Dongmin noticed the ominously grey clouds roll in about an hour into covering his area. This made him completely tape the posters to make them waterproof. By the time he was done, the sky was a dark grey, it started to drizzle when he got to his street and he made a run for it. Myungjun and Jinwoo let him in just before it came down, Sanha and Minhyuk came in not too long later half soaked and were ordered to quickly change by Jinwoo.

“Shit, Bin’s probably caught,” Jinwoo said.

“Is there covering anywhere in the park?”

“No, only the trees and the playground,” Jinwoo confessed.

“I’m going to get him,” Dongmin said and stood up, taking two of the largest umbrellas he could find with him. He ran out of the house before Jinwoo and Myungjun could process what he was doing.

The rain was horrible, his shoes up to his knees was soaked, the wind nearly brushed him aside and take his umbrella with it. When he got to the park, he tried to call Bin and find out where he was. He picked up after the third ring.

“Hello?” Bin’s voice asked, distorted by the rain.

“Where are you?” Dongmin asked.

“Still in the park, hiding out in kid’s playground.” Dongmin scanned for the place and found it.

“I see it.”

“Wait- you’re here?” Bin asked, confusion laced in his words.

“Yeah.” Dongmin ran over to the playground.

“I see you.” Bin said, after being quiet for some time.

“Where-”

“In the big red structure with the slide,” Bin cut in.

“Oh.” Dongmin spotted what Bin what talking about. He made his way over, the synthetic turf squelching under his feet. He saw Bin was at him through the structure’s window and climbed up. “Hey,” he said, closing his umbrella.

“Hey,” Bin replied. Dongmin noted that Bin was completely soaked.

“You’re wet.”   
“Yeah, totally didn’t notice.” Bin laughed a little and swiped his wet fringe up and away from his forehead.

_ Oh my God _ . repeated in Dongmin’s head like a mantra. He cleared his throat and picked up one of the few posters left.

“That photo is my favourite one of Jia.” Bin pointed.

“It’s a cute photo.”

They sat in silence and listened to the rain pelting down. Soft rumblings of thunder somewhere in the distance. 

Dongmin heard sniffling.

“God, it’s been such a shitty week for me. Do you think we’ll ever find her?”   
“Have faith, Bin. Who knows how fast we’ll get her home after today.” A gust of wind blew past them, making Bin shiver badly. “I have another umbrella, we should head back before you get sick,” Dongmin suggested.

“Too late,” Bin said and let out a sneeze.

“Aw you sneeze like a kitten.”

“May I remind you that I can take you out even if I am sick.”

“Sweet, where to?” Bin's mouth opened after the words left Dongmin's mouth.

“What was that?”

“Nothing…” Dongmin felt a blush creep up his neck from his own words. He was saved when his phone chimed, it was a message from Myungjun.

 

_ MJ _

WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU??????

 

_ Pain in the ass _

I’m hiding out in the playground with Bin

 

_ MJ _

Jinwoo and I are waiting in the carpark

Hurry up

 

Sighing as he pocketed his phone, he got up. “Myungjun and Jinwoo are waiting for us.”

“Oh thank God.”

They climbed down from the structure and opened up the umbrellas. Lightning flashed and followed by the crack of thunder, making them jump. 

“Last one to the car owes them food!” Dongmin yelled and ran.

“That's not fair!” Bin complained from behind.

“Too bad!”

The water splashed up their legs, the two of them giggling as they tried to pull each other back so one of them could win. They finally made it to the car, Bin looked happier but his smile was still tainted with worry. The backseats of Jinwoo's car were covered in towels and goosebumps washed over him from the warmth when they sat inside. The car was quiet while they drove back. The thrumming of the rain against the car window soothed Dongmin, his eyes slowly closing and opening.

The rain was still coming down by the time the car rolled into the driveway. The four of them huddled under their umbrellas as they hurried to the front door.

“When will the rain let up?” Myungjun grumbled as soon as Jinwoo unlocked the door.

They hustled into the house and Bin was automatically shoved up the stairs by Jinwoo and  Dongmin made hot tea with Myungjun for the others.

 

Once Bin was downstairs, showered and covered in blankets from head to toe, he told the rest of them how he thought he saw Jia and didn't realise it was going to rain until it did. 

“Maybe we should head back there when it stops raining,” Minhyuk said.

Dongmin shook his head. “It's supposed to be raining until tomorrow, we won't have any luck there.”

“Welp, no use moping around right now then,” Myungjun said. “Who wants food?”

The rest of them held their hand up and Bin did too, almost reluctantly. Dongmin noticed although he did not want to press him and fiddled with his thumbs instead, while Myungjun recorded the types of pizza they wanted. Jinwoo being the only one with a car that was available had no choice but to go out as well. The remainder of the group decided to watch a movie as they waited. 

Bin looked out of it; nodding off every once in awhile. Dongmin nudged him a little to get his attention. “Bin, are you unwell?”

Bin shrugged in response. “Just tired. Might take a nap.”

“It’s like seven in the evening.”

“And i’m going to nap anyway.”

“There’s no stopping you when it comes to food or sleep, is there?”

Bin shook his head and curled into the corner of the couch. Dongmin let him be and continued watching the movie with Minhyuk and Sanha, who were very engrossed in it. Myungjun and Jinwoo returned with two big boxes of pizza and soup half an hour later.

They gathered around the table and shared out the food between the five of them with enough left for Bin who was still asleep. Dongmin went over to wake him up to eat. “Bin get up and eat.” A frown formed on his face when he saw Bin’s eyes were red around the edges. Bin moved slowly and sat quietly as he ate the soup Myungjun handed him. Dongmin could sense the uneasy atmosphere around him; making it seem that all of them knew there was something wrong. They continued chatting and playing as they cleaned up so they did not look obvious. Dongmin watched Bin put his dishes in the sink and slink upstairs, probably to his room to sleep.

“We should take him to the doctor on Monday for a check up,” Jinwoo finally said.

“Is he like this from being soaked in the rain?” Sanha asked.

“Most likely,” Dongmin said.

“Alright let’s go to bed. Sanha I can take you home if you like?” Jinwoo offered. Sanha nodded his head and the two of them headed to Jinwoo’s car.

Minhyuk helped Dongmin get blankets and a pillow for the couch while Myungjun went up to shower.

“You should shower too and maybe change your clothes,” Minhyuk commented eyeing the slightly mud caked cuffs of Dongmin’s jeans. “You can borrow Bin’s, he won’t mind and you can toss yours in the wash and dryer so it’ll be ready in the morning.”

Dongmin was about to protest but decided against it and nodded. Minhyuk walked to Bin’s room to get Dongmin some clothes while he went down to make his bed. Thanking him after he received the clothes, Dongmin went back up and into the shower after Myungjun got out. 

Once he was out and had the clothes in the washing machine, Dongmin settled himself on the couch and fell asleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a lot of sleeping this chapter god. anyways i hope you guys liked it! Leave a comment about what you think!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two of them continued working for another hour and a half before Dongmin felt a poke in his side. Unfortunately for the both of them, Dongmin was ticklish and has a tendency to yell when surprised; but fortunately, Bin has fast reflexes and latched his hands tight on his mouth before he could make a sound.

Dongmin was surprised to see that Bin was fine when he woke up. Bin assured him that he was just really tired and he’s okay. The group minus Bin concluded that they will watch him in case something does happen. Dongmin thanked Jinwoo for letting him stay over after the locksmith unlocked their door that morning and left. 

Dongmin decided to head over to the library to work on his assignment and collected his belongings. He caught the bus to the library, a spring in his step when he hopped off and walked to towards the entrance. Dongmin moved quietly to a desk near the big windows and plugged in his laptop. The atmosphere of the library was exactly what he needed; the quietness of the area soothed him into working on his assignment non-stop. 

He felt a tap on his shoulder, blinking the daze out of his eyes, Dongmin saw Bin standing next to him.

“Mind if I join you?” he asked softly.

Dongmin shook his head and watched him take a seat next to him.

“Thought it would be good for me to change environment,” he explained as he took out a bunch of papers and his laptop. “Don't mind me and go back to doing your assignment.” Bin smiled. 

Dongmin returned a grin and went back to work. It was about 30 minutes later when he found himself getting curious about what Bin was exactly doing. Bin seemed to notice him peering over his shoulder because he handed him what he was drawing. Dongmin scanned the sheet and took note of the stick figures performing actions and the scribbling of words describing what they were.

“They're dance steps for the next choreo I'll be teaching,” he whispered.

Dongmin's mouth formed an o to express his understanding. “Really?” He mouthed.

“Yeah!”

Dongmin returned his gaze to the sheet of paper and followed the steps. He nodded in approval.

Bin flicked his hand at him, “go back to work,” he enunciated quietly.

The two of them continued working for another hour and a half before Dongmin felt a poke in his side. Unfortunately for the both of them, Dongmin was ticklish and has a tendency to yell when surprised; but fortunately, Bin has fast reflexes and latched his hands tight on his mouth before he could make a sound. 

“Come on, I'm hungry,” Bin whispered, moving his hands away and got up. Dongmin followed him to the lockers to retrieve his wallet.

“A little forewarning that you're ticklish at the start of our friendship would've been nice.”

“Sorry for not including: is ticklish, in the handbook,” Dongmin retorted.

“I swear time stood still when that happened, I already feel embarrassed when I put down my pencil a bit too hard.”

“Good thing you're fast, because I would've died from embarrassment as well.”

“Well now I know you're ticklish.” Dongmin did not like the smirk Bin was giving him.

They went down to the library’s own cafe to buy some quick lunch, a couple sandwiches and iced tea. They hurriedly wolfed down their food and headed back to their spot. Now, no longer hungry, the two of them went back to work. 

Dongmin was so immersed in his work he didn't notice the sun lower into the sky. Bin, on the other hand, did and tapped him to grab his attention.

Snapping out of it, Dongmin pulled his earbuds out of his ears and gave Bin a quizzical look.

“Don't you think you spent a bit too long here?”

“Why, what time is it?”

“Almost 6pm?”

“Probably then.” Dongmin got up and neatly packed away his things and trailed behind Bin back to the lockers.

Dongmin was running over the points he made and what to do next in his mind when Bin stopped abruptly making him bump heavily into his back.

“Hey!” Dongmin protested.

“Sorry, I was thinking about asking if you want to go out for a drink?”

“Now?”

Bin shrugged. “If you want to.”

Dongmin thought for a moment before shaking his head. “Sorry Bin, I'll have to sit this one out, I have work tomorrow anyway.”

“Oh yeah, work-” Bin stroked the imaginary hairs on his chin. “Alright see you later, Dongmin.”

“Wait are you drinking solo?” Dongmin asked in disbelief.

“Don't worry Min, I do it from time to time plus I don't drink more than I can handle. Now go before I drag you along with me,” Bin said and pushed him a little towards the taxi stand.

“Okay okay, see you.” Dongmin waved and walked to the taxi stand. He sat down on the bench and watched the back of Bin's head until he disappeared in the growing nightlife crowd.

Dongmin let out a yawn just as a taxi rolled in. Hopping inside, Dongmin told the driver his address and went home.

 

Dongmin was about to enter his house when he heard his name being called. Turning around he saw Minhyuk jogging across the street.

“What's up Minhyuk?”

“Where's Bin?” Minhyuk asked.

“Went out to drink, why?”

“Oh good, he sorta didn't tell me where he went. Kind of disappeared and he isn’t answering his phone.”

“Wow.”

“Yep. I just needed to find him because someone called with details about Jia.”

“Seriously?”

“Seemed legit.” Minhyuk sighed. “I know where to find Bin now, thanks Dongmin.” Minhyuk grinned and ran off.

Dongmin took his keys out and unlocked his door. 

He found Myungjun lounging on their couch with Jinwoo lying on his stomach asleep while his partner's hands ran in long strokes through his hair. The two of them lost in their own world since they didn't react to their friend entering the house. 

Dongmin felt creepy for watching them but he couldn't help but watch and admire their relationship. A familiar twinge of envy in his heart got him to finally make his way to his room. Flopping onto his bed, Dongmin stared at the ceiling and basked in his once in a blue moon lonely mindset. He didn't like it when it happened, it meant dwelling on how his last relationship affected his confidence and how he wants to be in one anyway. 

After a couple moments of self deprecation, Dongmin turned on his laptop to watch something. Half way through, he nodded off and did not see Myungjun creep into his room some hours later to put his laptop aside and tuck him properly in bed. 

It was around 1am when he got a call. Fumbling for his phone and eyes too bleary to decipher the blurred screen he accepted the call.

“Hello?” He answered, groggily.

“Hey, Min.”

“Oh hi Bin.” Dongmin managed after his mind started working. “What's going on?”

“Were you asleep?”

“Yeah.”

“Shit sorry. I was calling because Jia might be coming home.”

“That's great Bin!”

“We're not hundred percent sure on whether or not the person who called really has her; but we'll check tomorrow.”

“Oh okay, well I hope it's true then.”

“Me too, alright night Dongmin!”

“Night Bin.” Dongmin hung up and went back to sleep.

 

His alarm blared at his regular wake up time and Dongmin begrudgingly got out to dress for the day. He heard Myungjun get up as well, so he quickly went downstairs to make breakfast. 

“Hey,” Myungjun greeted, looking slightly drowsy.

“Hey,” Dongmin greeted back and handed Myungjun a plate of scrambled eggs. Myungjun thanked him and ate his food with Dongmin. After the kitchen was cleaned, they went to work. 

Dongmin walked past the reception and into the elevator. He was early to work as usual so, the place was not as crowded as per normal. He patiently waited for his floor and got out. He greeted his co-workers and sat down to complete his tasks. Dongmin felt something was missing and checked his phone. It was past 1 o'clock and no text from Bin indicated that he was on his way to meet him. Dongmin quickly went to the bathroom to call him. Bin picked up on the second ring.

“Dongmin hi,” Dongmin heard something was off from his voice. 

“Hey Bin, is lunch off?”

“Oh? Oh yeah! Sorry Min, something came up and I forgot to tell you.”

“That's okay,” Dongmin assured. “So what's the news with Jia?”

“She wasn't there, some prankster thought it would be funny to call us,” Bin huffed.

“That sucks.”

“Yeah…” Bin trailed off and Dongmin heard muffled coughing.

“Are you sick?”

“... No.”

“Moon Bin.”

“Yes I am.” Bin sounded sheepish. “I was at the doctors after we visited the caller.”

“You should've told me.” 

“I'm not great with telling people when there's something wrong.” Bin let out a torrent of coughs soon after.

“Alright, I should hang up and let you rest. See you later.” Bin was still coughing when Dongmin hung up.

Dongmin worked for a couple more hours until work ended and left for Bin's house.

When he arrived, he rung the bell and waited to be let in while worrying about how the hot comfort food would get cold. Finally, he was let in by Minhyuk.

“Oh sweet! Is that food?” Before Dongmin could answer, the bag was ripped out of his hands. 

“That's for Bin!” Dongmin exclaimed.

“Don't worry, he won't be able to eat all of it because he's lost half of his appetite.” Dongmin grumbled and saved the bowl of soup from Minhyuk's clutches and headed to Bin's room. 

He knocked on the door and went inside when a hoarse “Come in!” answered.

“Hey….” He greeted and creeped into the room. “How are you feeling?”

“Like someone dying from asphyxiation.”

“Yeesh, don't be so morbid,” Dongmin joked. “Anyways, I brought some soup for you.” Dongmin walked closer to Bin and slowly handed the food over. 

Bin's face brightened at the sight of sustenance and ate it. Dongmin watched him in surprise.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Bin asked after wiping his mouth.

“Minhyuk told me you had barely any appetite for food and took the rest of the takeaway I brought.”

“He lied then because my appetite does not disappear.”

Dongmin turned around and went out the door.

“Where are you going?” Dongmin glanced back at Bin and took in his ruffled hair and pout. Unbelievably cute even with the red nose. 

“To steal back my food. Wait- what are you doing?” Dongmin asked as he watched Bin climb out of bed.

“I'm coming with, I need more food,” he replied giving him a wicked smile.

“Come here first.” Dongmin gestured. Bin shuffled over and Dongmin reached for his forehead.

“What-?”

“I'm checking for temperature.”

“But why?”

“So I'll know if I should kick your ass to bed,” Dongmin muttered. “Has your fever broke?”

“I'm not sure but can I please go fight Minhyuk for food?”

“Fine.” Dongmin exited the room and went downstairs with Bin.

The moment they got to the lounge room, they stopped and stared at Minhyuk, who was feasting on the food Dongmin had brought, and Sanha, who appeared out of nowhere.

Dongmin cleared his throat to catch their attention. “When I bought that much food, it's meant for all of us.”

Minhyuk laughed nervously, eyeing Bin who was slowly advancing towards him and sliding the remainder of the food towards them. Thanking him, the four of them ate together until there was no more left.

As they finished clearing up, Dongmin decided that it was better to go back to his house. This was met with protest from Bin and Dongmin having to promise he'll come back after work the next day.

“Geez, you're like a little kid,” Dongmin muttered.

“Minhyuk will be at the studio tomorrow and Jinwoo will be out as well so, there'll be no one else with me.”

“I'll work on my assignment and keep you company then.” 

“Thanks.” Bin smiled up at him, eyes sparkly from a possible upcoming coughing fit. Dongmin waved at him, said bye to the rest and left. 

 

...

 

Dongmin did as he promised and hung out with Bin while he worked on his assignment. Bin laid sprawled on the couch, making Dongmin squeeze into the corner. 

“How are you holding up?” Bin asked at one point.

“I should be the one asking you that,” Dongmin replied, finally tearing his eyes away from the laptop screen. He took off his glasses to wipe his eyes. 

“I feel better than yesterday, should be able to go back to the studio by Thursday. You?”

“I'm getting there, still have a long way to go.” Dongmin glanced back at the screen and thought it was best to stop for the night and closed the lid. “Any news about Jia?”

“Not at all. But we're still hoping.” Dongmin nodded and turned the television on and watched some show with Bin until Jinwoo and Minhyuk came back and Dongmin could leave. 

 

After Bin was better and not dripping snot every five minutes, they went back to the usual routine of meeting each other for lunch. He had actually missed seeing Bin's face above some of the people milling around the foyer of the ground floor and the over enthusiastic waving he would receive. He stopped and stared at the sandwich in his hand, why would he be missing Bin even when he's been seeing him after work?

“Are you going to eat that?” Bin asked. “If not, I will.”

“I am, it's just-” Dongmin wrinkled his eyebrows, puzzled.

“Just what?”

“I missed you.”

Bin blinked. “Oh…”

“It's silly really-”

“It's not,” Bin interjected. “I missed you too.”

“Hm, I guess it's because we've been doing this for quite awhile.” Maybe he shouldn't discuss the rapid beating of his heart with him.

“True.” Bin sat quietly and stared at something in front of Dongmin. “I have one question.”

“What?”

“Can I eat your sandwich?”

“No!”

“At least I tried,” Bin muttered. Dongmin ate the rest before Bin could snatch it. “Are you going to the library today?” Dongmin nodded, his mouth still full. “You've been working on it like everyday for the past week!”

Dongmin shrugged. Bin leaned over the table to tap his nose.

Dongmin scrunched his face at the contact and swallowed the remainder of his food. “Yes, I know it's not good. But I can't help it.”

“You can, you still have a lot of time left!”

“What do you suggest I do then?” Dongmin asked and took a sip from his drink.

“Go out this weekend, go on a date with someone for all I care do something for yourself that's not related to work.”

“Yeah dating is not on the table right now.” Even when he had angst over his lack of love life, the thought of dating someone brought curls of fear into his stomach. “I'll be fine, I'll finish it up this weekend then present it and I'll have the rest of the internship to enjoy more free time.”

Bin looked skeptical but kept back from saying anything. “You do you then,” he finally said and got up to pay for their meal. 

 

Dongmin realised that the plan was not the brightest when he woke up and saw the bags under his eyes. He had spent the Friday night writing up his assignment and was barely a third of the way in when he nodded off at what seemed like sunrise. He went back to his room to draw up a timeline for what times he should assign something for him to do instead of solely focusing on finishing his assignment. 

Myungjun gave him nothing but slightly worried glances once he came downstairs.

“Dongmin, you know that I know that you can allocate your time much more efficiently then right now, what’s going on?”

“Nothing.”   
“Your eyebags say otherwise,” Myungjun countered.

“Just wanted to finish my assignment so I can spend more time with you guys.”   
“You can still do that.”   
“That’s what Bin said, but I thought it would be better to finish this weekend.”

“Did the logical thinking part of your brain run out of juice or?”

“Yes it did.” Dongmin watched Myungjun crouch down from their table and curl into ball.

“I’m rooming with a person who forgets how to think like a human.”

“So, what am I then?”

“A cyborg,” Myungjun stated, looking up at Dongmin. “Seriously, please rest.”

“I’ve already figured out how to spread out what I need to do.”

“That’s already better than I had anticipated.” Myungjun got up and dusted the imaginary dust off of his pyjamas. 

 

After his talk with Myungjun, Dongmin managed his time better under the watchful eyes of friends. Within three weeks of his internship to spare, he was finished. Dongmin pushed his laptop away with a heavy sigh of relief. Closing all his tabs and saving his assignment multiple times for good measure had let him realise he has finally got it over with, save for his presentation to the board. 

The guys thought it would be great to throw a small dinner party for him, even knowing fully well Dongmin had not gotten the job yet and it was obviously an excuse for them to eat and drink whatever they buy. 

Dongmin cracked open a can of beer and drank as he watched his friends scoff down the chicken and noodles they ordered. Minhyuk and Sanha were having a competition about who could consume the most chicken under a minute; while Myungjun and Jinwoo were quietly discussing something which left Bin. Dongmin studied Bin for some time, he was chuckling at younger two people of their group. Dongmin felt something flutter a bit in his stomach but ignored it as he yawned loudly. 

“Dongmin you should go sleep now,” Bin suggested.

Dongmin shook his head, “I don't want to.”

Bin rolled his eyes at him and looked down at his phone after his notification alerted him. Bin's smile turned into shock as he stared at his phone.

“Bin, what is it?” Dongmin asked.

“Someone found Jia.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can sort of tell I have no clue what i'm doing with this fic, but i'm having fun writing it. I hope you liked this chapter! :")


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Well maybe we can try taking your laptop to the repair shop to retrieve your files,” Jinwoo suggested.  
> “Oh yeah…” Dongmin coughed again.  
> “Please don’t tell me you didn’t think about that?”  
> Dongmin nodded, making Jinwoo and Myungjun sigh.  
> “So what did you say to him in all your sickly glory?”

Dongmin watched Bin run out of the house with Minhyuk to go get Jia. Despite being worried about his friend's cat, Dongmin was not prepared for her sudden change in behavior.

When Bin brought in Jia, hidden away in a cage, it took him awhile to coax her out. When she was out, she clung to Bin's arm. Dongmin was shocked by her appearance, her coat was flecked with grey hairs which hung off of her frame, a far cry from when he saw her last.

“Someone saw her walking around and recognised her as well. But she did not let them go near so the person resorted to calling the shelter to pick her up. That's where I got the message from.” Bin was smiling and yet Dongmin could see he was affected by how thin Jia was. “The shelter recommended I take her to the vet, so I'll take her soon.” Dongmin moved closer to Bin but stopped in his tracks when Jia hissed at him, seemingly out of her timidness.

“She's not used to people that aren't me or Minhyuk,” Bin explained. “It must've been traumatising for her.”

“I hope she'll get better soon.” the others murmured similar assurance and they decided to leave since it was late.

 

Dongmin was not able to see Bin for some time after that. Jia proved to be not comfortable with him, Myungjun, Sanha and even Jinwoo who showed up at Dongmin’s doorstep with a hastily packed bag of clothes. Turned out Jia was not used to Jinwoo at all and her behaviour would become slightly erratic when he was around.

“Bin and I thought it was best that I stay here instead.”

“Did he not take her to the vet at all?” Myungjun asked. “Not like i’m unhappy about you staying in my house.”

“Oh we did try to get him, but he keeps pushing it back.”

“Why is he being stubborn about it?” Jinwoo shrugged.

“Due to her behaviour and how old she is, he might be scared about the reason behind it.”

“How do we get him to?” Dongmin contemplated.

“We can’t, it’s his choice.”

“Well, I hope he’ll come to his senses.” Dongmin leaned back into the couch.

“Can’t we just do an intervention?”

“They never work with him until ages after it happens, believe me. Minhyuk and I have tried multiple times with other problems he had.”

“We’ll leave it to him them, no use forcing it,” Dongmin sighed, rubbing his temples.

“Dongmin are alright?” Dongmin looked up at Myungjun and Jinwoo, their eyes filled with concern.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’ve been looking a bit drawn since the last time we all saw Bin.”

“I’m fine really. Just worried about Bin and Jia.” That was totally it.

 

Dongmin being Dongmin did not tell anybody that he ended up sick, except for Myungjun who can read him way too well. He knew he would be eating his words when he teased Bin for not telling anyone he was ill and for assuring him that he won't push himself, yet there he was staring at his desktop trying to start his task. His head hurt and he tried to suppress his coughing to a minimum behind tissues.

“Mr. Lee, my office now!” his supervisor ordered. His co-workers looked at him as he got up and scurried into her office.

“Yes Ms. Choi?” he asked, keeping his voice as leveled as possible.

His supervisor sighed. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Pardon?”

“You are very obviously sick, have you seen the doctor?”  
“N-no,” Dongmin stammered.

“How often have you been working on your assignment?”

“I’m finished Ms.” she closed her eyes and let out a long breath in exasperation.

“I’m going to give you a four day leave including the weekend until you are well rested.”  
Dongmin looked up in alarm. “B-but-”

His supervisor held her hand up. “Don’t argue and go home, you’ve pushed your body way too far. Now go.”

Dongmin bowed and left her office to collect his bag and leave the building. He hailed a taxi and went to the doctor’s. He entered the clinic and was met with the smell of hand sanitizer, he crossed over to the reception to place a slot to see one of the doctors. Luckily, he had five minutes until his appointment and sat down to send a text to Myungjun.

 

_Pain in the ass_

Supervisor sent me to the doctors

and gave me four days off

_MJ_

Good.

 

_Pain in the ass_

:(

 

Dongmin slipped his phone back in his pocket when his name was called. He walked into the doctor’s office and greeted him.

“So… Dongmin what seems to be the problem?”

“I’ve not been feeling very unwell lately.” Dongmin then explained his lightheadedness, his sore throat and all the things that make his head feel it’s detached from his body. The doctor checked him and concluded he contracted Pharyngitis and will need to take antibiotics and plenty of rest. Thanking him, Dongmin paid for his meds and left.

He knew something was wrong once he stepped into his house. He gasped in horror from what he saw. Objects were strewn across the floor, his laptop that was on the dining table was on the ground and shattered. Panicked, Dongmin reached for his phone to dial the emergency operator when he heard something smash and a small mewl echoed in the house. He moved cautiously towards the sound and found Jia in the kitchen.

“Hey, Jia,” he said quietly. The cat looked at him and pushed a glass off the counter. Dongmin skirted around the broken glass to try and take her. When he held her up, he didn’t have time to duck as she slashed at his face. “Shit!” he exclaimed. Jia hissed at him before running off to another room. Clutching his left cheek, Dongmin located Jia behind the couch and grabbed a blanket. He wrapped her in it and left his house. Dongmin stormed over to Bin’s house with Jia tucked in the blanket to prevent her from attacking him.

“Oh, hey Dongmin, you weren’t at work and was told you went home earl- what happened?” Bin reached out to touch the scratch on Dongmin’s cheek. Dongmin flinched away from his touch and Bin recoiled. He roughly handed Jia over to Bin.

“Your cat decided to pay a visit to my house and left complete destruction in her wake. I don’t know what hell has gotten into her since she came back but you need to send her to the vet or someone.”

“But she’s fine, Min!”

“Yeah so perfectly fine that she lashed out at me!”

“You must have startled her then.”

Jia lunged out of the blanket to the floor, purring as she rubbed around Bin’s leg before raising her hackles and hissed at Dongmin.

Dongmin sighed, “Bin, my laptop is destroyed along with the external drive that had my documents with it!”

“What are you getting at?”

“My assignment is gone Bin!” Dongmin did not mean to snap. “And I was planning to hand it in this Friday and probably get the job but now I can’t!”

“Can’t you just redo it?”

“I’ve already told my supervisor that I’m done and she’s expecting it when I go back to work next week because guess what? I’m sick as well.” he hated that he felt like crying once again in front of Bin.

“Well then go work on it!”  
“You are not understanding me, I got sick and therefore, was ordered by my supervisor and the doctor to rest meaning to not work on anything until I’m better.”

“Go!” Bin snapped.

“I’m trying to tell you to take Jia to the vet because there’s something wrong with her, and you know how hard I’ve worked since I got the offer.”  
“Stop telling me what to do with my own pet! Besides I thought you didn’t want it at all.” Bin said the last sentence so nonchalantly it lit a fuse in Dongmin’s brain.

“Are you fucking kidding me! Of course I do! How can you say that when you’re the one who supported me in the first place! So you'd rather find her dead and regret not taking care of her? Are you so scared of losing her and facing the fact that she may be seriously sick because she's the last remnant of your mother?” Dongmin felt the regret and horror after the words left his mouth. Bin showed no emotion and it terrified him.

“Well at least you have both your parents to go cry to but oh wait- you can't because you ran away from them!”

Dongmin had it coming at him but his stupid brain would not let him back down. “I wished I never rang your doorbell and met you or else I would've never been in this mess. I would have been better off without you!”

“Is that what you think about me? About us? Just because you rather have stayed in your house and never have friends?”

“So what if I do?” Dongmin answered coldly. He did not register the pain that flashed in his heart and in the other's eyes from what both of their statements did. Bin slammed the door, leaving Dongmin to process what had happened.

He trudged back to his house and hid in his bed and tried to sleep. He got woken up by shouting and his bedroom door bursting open to reveal Myungjun and Jinwoo, the room was dark with a little light shining from the hallway.

“Dongmin what the hell happened?” Myungjun asked.

“Bin’s cat,” Dongmin finally managed after struggling to get the words out from his swollen throat. “She got inside and trashed the place.”

“What else?” Myungjun asked slowly.

“My laptop and external drive got knocked off the table, the screen is cracked and it won’t turn on.”

“Shit, Dongmin your assignment.”

“Yeah, I got pretty pissed and told Bin off for it.”

“Well maybe we can try taking your laptop to the repair shop to retrieve your files,” Jinwoo suggested.

“Oh yeah…” Dongmin coughed again.

“Please don’t tell me you didn’t think about that?”

Dongmin nodded, making Jinwoo and Myungjun sigh.

“So what did you say to him in all your sickly glory?”

“I told him what happened, he tried to defend Jia, I asked him to take her to the vet considering she did all that, he got defensive, I mentioned his mother, he hit back with my parents, I told him I wished we never met and he slammed the door on me.”

“Oh my god, the two of you are such dickheads,” Myungjun groaned although Jinwoo was quiet. Dongmin felt tears pool and drip past the scratch on his cheek, making him hiss and curse at the pain.

“Dongmin what’s wrong?” Myungjun asked while Jinwoo switched on the light. “Holy shit, did Jia do that?”

“Is it bad?” Dongmin asked.

“Dongmin you need to get it treated.”  
“That bad huh?”

“I’ll go to Bin-” Jinwoo started.

“No don’t!” Dongmin let out a cough. “I don’t want him to know.”

“Fine, get up you have to get the scratch seen to.” Myungjun helped Dongmin up and got him into the car.

Dongmin saw the damage in passing. The scratch started from his under his left eye and down his cheek in three swollen lines. He casted his eyes away and focused on his hands. Time passed in a daze and he was already being lead to the doctor’s office. The doctor asked him questions and he replied listlessly. The doctor then inspected the scratch and his eye for any problems before he disinfected the mark. He flinched at the contact but kept still for the sake of the medically certified professional standing in front of him.

“There is a slight infection, but nothing too serious. I’ll give you antibiotics to treat it.”

 _Great more medicine_. Dongmin thought. He thanked the doctor after the scratch was bandaged up and left to pay for the consultation and medicine. Myungjun and Jinwoo who were waiting, walked beside him as they made their way to the car.

Jinwoo pulled into his house driveway. Dongmin got out and walked back to his house with Myungjun, ignoring the figure that stared at him through the window.

“Go to bed and we'll see if Jinwoo can contact the shop tomorrow okay?”

Dongmin nodded, the last of his voice gone from overuse and went to bed. He crawled under his covers and fell asleep, his fight with Bin playing on repeat in his mind.

 

Dongmin felt his bed dip from someone's weight on it and a hand gently shake his arm.

“Dongmin, wake up.” He heard Myungjun say.

Dongmin shifted around to face his friend.

“God you're a mess,” Myungjun commented.

Dongmin made a protesting noise that sounded like a dying whale.

“Don't even try speaking today or I'll kick your ass,” Myungjun warned. Dongmin gave him the thumbs up. “Alright so, I'm about to leave for the shop and save your files and get your laptop fixed. Whichever comes first and I want you to text me what files you need. Okay?”

Dongmin nodded and did the okay sign. Myungjun left his room and Dongmin hid himself under his covers. He texted the files he needed: his assignment folder, photo folder and his downloaded movies. With nothing else to do besides either staring at his phone or fruitlessly flicking through channels on the television. He decided lying in front of the television was a better option and did just that. When he got downstairs he found breakfast laid out for him, it was a bowl of porridge. He brought the bowl with him to the couch and ate it while he flicked through the television. After he was finished, he went back to his room and took his medicine before climbing into bed for a short nap.

The short nap ended up stretching to two hours and was interrupted by Myungjun shaking him awake. Grumbling, Dongmin swatted at him from under the covers.

“Dongmin get up, we have your files.” That got him to sit up.

“You do?” Dongmin asked, his voice way below a whisper.

“Yes, it's all in this thumb drive.” Myungjun handed him the small plastic drive. “Your laptop is fixable but a lot of parts need to be replaced. Also here's some face masks and tissues for you to use.” Dongmin took the box and pulled one out to put on. After it was secured, Dongmin flung his arms around Myungjun to give him hug. It was not long until he started crying into his friend's shoulder.

“Thank you, Myungjun,” he sniffed.

“I'll always have your back, Dongmin,” Myungjun said, gently rubbing his hand on his back. “No matter how much of a pain in the ass you are, I'll help you.”

Dongmin heard him sniffle. “Are you crying?” he asked, a pained laugh escaping his mouth.

“Of course I am, dumbass. I hate it when you cry.”

“Sorry.”

“Don't apologise, now rest some more until you're better,” Myungjun ordered. Dongmin nodded and laid back down. “I have to go do some more errands and I bought groceries and take-away so don't worry about not having food to eat. Okay?” Dongmin gave him a double thumbs up and waved at him. Myungjun closed the door and Dongmin went back to sleeping his illness off, his dreams plagued with Bin's face.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *laughs nervously* yep it's a short chapter but tell me what you think because it took me a month and a half writing and editing this chapter specifically the "argument"


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And then Dongmin saw Bin, the position he was in was awkward as he laid eyes on him while Dohyun continued talking, his hand still secured on Dongmin's shoulders. Bin broke their gaze and left the room.

 

The next day, Dongmin checked the thumb drive if it had his files and sighed in relief when he found nothing important missing.

That day he realised that he didn't feel like dying which was a good thing but his medical certificate won't allow him back in the office until next week. He prepared the notes he would use, and when that was done, he realised he had nothing else to do. His mind kept wandering to his argument with Bin and mulling over his words and how stupid he feels about it. But Dongmin was a coward and was too ashamed to see Bin. He then forced himself to watch a show he had been meaning to catch up on, to quell the intruding thoughts. And it worked. His next couple of days crawled along as he rid his mind of Bin and focused on either practicing his presentation or watching television.  

 

When the day he had to present arrived, he was more than ready. His documents were printed and slotted into files for the board as well. He combed his hair and smoothed out his suit, his supervisor told him it was advisable that he wore what he had worn when he was interviewed for the internship. Myungjun and Jinwoo wished him luck over breakfast, while Minhyuk and Sanha sent him texts. But nothing from Bin. It was already a week since and he realised his anger towards Bin had already dissipated by then. When Dongmin looked in the mirror once more before heading out of the house, he sighed when he spotted the very faint lines of Jia’s scratch, thankfully covered with the concealer bought the day before, and exited his house.

He had the jitters as he sat in the taxi and up the steps to the building's lobby.

“Good luck Dongmin!” Ms. Woo, the receptionist called after him when he walked past.

Once he got to the desired floor, he patiently waited for his name to be called. Some of the interns had already done their own or simply did not and applied to other law firms to go to after their internship finishes.

“Lee Dongmin?” He heard an unfamiliar voice call.

Dongmin took a deep breath in and out.

_This is it!_

 

Dongmin finished to a round of applause and being thanked and dismissed by the people who would be determining whether he would stay on or not. He called Myungjun after he was out of the building.

“Dongmin! How did it go?”

“I think it went well! They will tell me if I got the job in the the week before my internship ends.”

“That's great! I'm proud of you! And Jinwoo is too!”

“But what if I don't get in?”

“Nonsense! You're Lee Dongmin! You're a hard-worker who can get anything he wants if he sets his mind to it plus you've gotten on your supervisor’s good side even when you told me how intimidated by her you were on your first day!”

“Thanks Myungjun, I needed that.”

“Don't mention it, now come home and eat.”

“Alright see you,” Dongmin replied and hung up.

 

When Dongmin got home, he was greeted with the smell of food wafting from the kitchen. He laid his bag on the table and walked into the kitchen.

“When was the last time I saw you cook?” Dongmin asked Myungjun once he saw him, hunched over the stove, his ever-present fringe pulled back.

“Ha ha very funny, I'm cooking for you to celebrate finishing your major assignment.”

“You didn't have to…”

“But I wanted to. Go sit down or else you won't get to eat anything!” Myungjun waved his ladle at Dongmin.

Dongmin walked over to the dining table where Jinwoo was sitting and sat down heavily.

“Hey, you did well, don’t dwell on it.”

“We'll see,” Dongmin sighed.

Myungjun brought in the food and they ate hungrily.

 

“Are you alright?” Jinwoo asked when they were washing the dishes.

“I think so… How's Bin?”

“He's doing okay, still a bit mad about your argument but he did take Jia to the vet.”

“That's good.”

“She's still there being monitored but the general overview is just her acting up due to old age.”

“Oh… Maybe I should go apologise soon…”

“Yeah, “maybe”.” Jinwoo air quoted, his rubber gloves making a squelching sound as he did so.

Myungjun quickly changed the subject when he noticed Dongmin grew quiet, and talking about Bin was paused for the rest of the evening.

…

Dongmin punched away on his keyboard, driven and focused. Although the assignment was over with, he still had a couple more weeks left of his internship, meaning he still had work to complete. Already a week and some since the fight and he still was not used to not receiving messages in the middle of work. When his lunch break came, he had fumbled over figuring out where to eat. He could eat at the Vanilla Bean; but Bin's aunt would be suspicious of him eating alone and he did not want to get her involved. He chose to sit in the office’s cafe and eat the small pack of lunch he brought, his co-workers would eye him wondering where the tall boy who would greet him loudly in the foyer went, unbeknownst to Dongmin.

Ms. Woo, the receptionist, called him over to the desk asking where Bin was. Dongmin froze, feeling a blush rise up his face, when he tells her they aren't talking much anymore. Her face displayed shock at first but quickly covered it up with concern. She told him it would be resolved soon. _He did not tell her that they have not even tried talking_. And left to go home.

 

When he got home, he saw Bin opposite him. He tried to wave to get Bin's attention but put his arm down and hurried to his front door instead.

 

“Myungjun, why do I suck at being a decent human being?” he asked once his friend walked in. Although he managed to distract himself for awhile, he ended up half off the couch and half on the floor as he went through a crisis.

“Is this about Bin?” Myungjun questioned as he flopped down next to Dongmin.

“No?”

“You know things might go back to where they were if you go and apologise.”

“I don't think he would even accept it! I screwed it all up!”

“C'mon, it's been weeks since you last saw him! He would probably be more than happy to accept your apology!”

“I don't deserve his forgiveness,” Dongmin lamented.

“You both need to apologise! You both hit each other below the belt so please go and do it!”

“Maybe one day,” Dongmin sighed.

“Did you get the call from your supervisor?”

“Not yet.” Just as he answered, his phone rang. The two of them sat still before Dongmin scrambled for his phone.

“Hello, Mrs. Choi.” Dongmin looked to Myungjun who was looking back at him, frozen in anticipation.

“Hello, Dongmin. I am calling to let you know that you got the job.”

“I did?” Myungjun stood up but kept quiet.

“Yes, we are pleased to have you working for us. You'll be starting properly once your internship period ends next week but until then you don't have to come in for work.”

“Oh! Thank you Mrs. Choi!”

“You better take care of yourself properly from now on.”

“Yes I will.”

“Good, I'll see you when you start. Goodbye Dongmin.”

“Goodbye, Mrs. Choi!” his supervisor hung up and Dongmin put his phone down. He let go of his calm and tackled Myungjun into a hug. “I got the job!”

“Congrats! Oh my God! You really did it!” Dongmin nodded, his mind in a daze. “We should go celebrate!”

“Now!?” Dongmin asked.

“Soon, we need to tell the others too!” Myungjun said as he pulled out his phone and tapped away.

Dongmin unlocked his phone and spotted Bin's name in his list of recent contacts.

 

Bin

 

Bin I got the job|

 

Dongmin's finger hovered over the send button, sighing he deleted the message and exited out of the application. He couldn't even do something as simple as a text message.

“Were you thinking about telling him?” He heard Myungjun ask and nodded. “We're thinking of going to a bar to celebrate, do you want him to come?”

“If he wants to…”

“Alright, I'll ask Jinwoo to casually mention it to him then. Go get changed.”

Dongmin got up and went to his room. He got into his shower and scrubbed at the day's grime. He changed into decent going out clothes and sat at the edge of his bed. He was in the middle of contemplating whether or not to style his hair before deciding to sweep his fringe up and away from his forehead, when Myungjun knocked on his door and peeped from behind.

“Hey, uh, Jinwoo says Bin is thinking about it.” Dongmin merely nodded and heard his door close.

Dongmin groaned quietly, he did not think it would last so long. He closed his eyes and his mind projected the image of Bin from earlier that day. He was dressed in shorts and a tank top, his usual clothes. Why he was thinking about that specifically was beyond him, it's been weeks since he saw him in person, so why now

 _I miss him._ Was the only answer he could muster.

“Crap,” he muttered.

“Dongmin we're going!”

Dongmin heaved himself out of his bed and went downstairs. Myungjun was dressed and waiting impatiently at the front door. He followed him out and to Jinwoo's car.

When he sat down, he only found Minhyuk and Sanha in the back seat. He caught himself before he could sigh from relief.

“Congrats on getting the job,” the three chorused.

“Thanks.” Dongmin smiled. Myungjun and Sanha chattered in excitement about something he couldn't quite catch; while Jinwoo drove and Minhyuk sat quietly on his phone. Dongmin knew if Bin joined they wouldn't have enough seats anyway.

“You're thinking about Bin aren't you?” Minhyuk asked quietly.

“What makes you say that?” he whispered back.

“You keep glancing towards this side of the car with the most forlorn face ever. When are you both going to talk it out and get back to being friends?”

“I was sort of hoping today…”

“Hmm alright.” Minhyuk muttered and went back to his phone.

 

When they finally arrived at the club, Dongmin was feeling so jittery with nerves, the others had to pull him out of the car. After they entered the place, drinks were ordered, except Jinwoo who was driving, and Dongmin was goaded into chugging his beer. Couple of glasses later, he no longer felt nervous about his outing to the club and was able to celebrate his employment with his friends. They had even dragged him to the dance floor, Dongmin usually never drank as much as he did or danced in front of strangers but it felt good to be that confident.

After feeling the earth shift a bit, Dongmin decided to sit down at the bar and rest. The guy next to him started talking to him at some point and he engaged in the conversation after introducing themselves. The guy (Dohyun) was cute funnily enough and Dongmin was swept up by his charisma. He realised he was interested in him, it felt nice. Dongmin picked up on his flirting and the exchange went on, and he loved every second of it.

“So, you're cute,” Dohyun said.

Dongmin snorted, “Thanks!”

Dohyun moved closer to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “What if we go out somewhere?”

“Like a date?”

“Yeah.” The other smiled. Dongmin's mind short circuited a bit.

“Can I think about it? It's been awhile since I've gone out with someone.”

“Seriously? Someone as nice and good-looking as you hasn't gone on a date with someone for a long time?”

“Yep,” Dongmin laughed.

“Wow, then yeah. You can think about it.”

“Thanks.”

And then Dongmin saw Bin, the position he was in was awkward as he laid eyes on him while Dohyun continued talking, his hand still secured on Dongmin's shoulders. Bin broke their gaze and left the room.

“Mind if I get some air, I've been stuck in this place for a bit too long,” Dongmin informed. Dohyun nodded and stepped away. "Mind if I give you my number?”

“Well then I'll give mine, so you can let me know if you want to take on that date?”

“Sure.”

After their numbers were exchanged, Dongmin waved and hurried out of the club. The cool night air washed over him and he let out a sigh. He looked around for Bin and spotted him. He ran as fast as he could calling out to him.

“Bin!” He yelled. The other whipped around, startled.

“What?”

“I wanted to say that I'm really sorry, about everything. I wished I told you sooner.” Dongmin managed between breaths. His legs swooped a bit and Bin caught him. The two of them froze for a few heartbeats before Bin helped him stand up straight.

“Maybe you should say that when you're sober,” Bin suggested.

Dongmin looked at him and noticed that Bin's face was clouded with an emotion his drunk mind could not place.

“What's wrong?”

“It's nothing, you should go back to the others, you looked like you were having fun,” he replied, lightly pushing Dongmin back towards the club entrance.

“Oh, okay then. I’m happy you came at least. Bye Bin,” Dongmin said, Bin did not reply and kept walking.

Dongmin wobbled into the club and was met with Jinwoo struggling to deal with a drunken Minhyuk and Myungjun.

“Sanha's gone home already,” Jinwoo said. “How drunk are you?”

“Enough to get someone's number.”

“Yeah that's pretty drunk, come on let's get them to the car.” Jinwoo held up a giggly Myungjun while Dongmin helped Minhyuk.

The group staggered to Jinwoo's car and strapped themselves in. Dongmin sat himself in the front with Jinwoo and tried to focus on a fixed point on the horizon to help quell the queasiness. The ride was relatively quiet except for the low snoring emitting from the back row. When they arrived at his driveway, Jinwoo got out to help Myungjun into the house, leaving Dongmin to get Minhyuk back to his.

“Did you see Bin at the club?” Minhyuk asked.

“Sorry?” Dongmin was startled from Minhyuk being conscious. “I did, why?”

“What happened?”

“Nothing, I was doing something.”

“Ah, fuck. He was supposed to tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

“Nothing,” Minhyuk mumbled.

“Minhyuk where's your keys?”

“I got it,” Minhyuk replied, fumbling for it in his pockets. Once he found them, he handed them to Dongmin, the less drunk of the two. Dongmin unlocked the door albeit with a bit of difficulty before putting Minhyuk down on the couch. The younger of the two conked out as soon as his head hit the pillows, allowing Dongmin to go back to his place.

As a he was leaving, he heard a small meowl. Dongmin saw Jia standing next to him. But something was wrong, her left eye was cloudy.

“What are you doing here?” He heard Bin's voice ask. Dongmin slowly turned to face him, his vision clearer than when he saw him at the club.

“Helping Minhyuk, he's a bit too drunk to function. But since he's sleeping, I'm leaving now. So excuse me.” he thought about asking Bin about what he was supposed to tell him; ultimately deciding against it and left the house instead.

Dongmin hurried to his house and instantly regretted walking that fast. He walked to the kitchen to get hangover medicine for tomorrow's much awaited hangover and water before going up to his room.

“So who's the mystery person?” Jinwoo asked once Dongmin was at the top of the stairs.

“I'll tell you in the morning, night.” Dongmin waved him off and went to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the aftermath~  
> let me know what you think <3


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It took him more than a minute to pluck up the courage to venture over to Bin's place. When he felt ready he hopped down the stairs and flung open the door. He saw Bin straight away but… Dongmin stopped in his tracks. Something was wrong. He watched Bin carry a hastily bundled blanket to Jinwoo's car, there were panicked shouts coming from Jinwoo and Minhyuk who were right behind him. He saw the three get into the car and drive off.

Dongmin was not sure about whether or not to let Myungjun and Jinwoo know about Dohyun. Jinwoo and him forgot about the previous night's short exchange and Dongmin started seeing Dohyun frequently. Dohyun worked in IT at a building near Dongmin's, so they met for lunch and hit it off from there.

Dongmin could not place how he was able to open up to Dohyun, save for some information. When he told him, he was very understanding. He could not help but think back to when he became friends with Bin.

“You don't have to tell me everything now, it's your choice over when you want to,” he said. Dongmin smiled at that.

They haven't gone on  _ that _ date yet, as they planned it for the coming Friday. He was excited and nervous but there was something eating away at his mind. 

 

He was busy trying to dress decently for the date when Myungjun came into his room.

“Where are you going?” He heard him ask.

“Meeting a friend,” he replied.

“Who?”

“Dohyun.”

“May I ask where?”

“That Chinese restaurant next to the club we went to last time.”

“Oh. Have fun then.” there was some disbelief in his voice but Dongmin chose not to acknowledge it.

After he was ready, he got on to the bus that he just managed to catch.

Dohyun was waiting for him outside the restaurant and greeted him when Dongmin caught his attention.

The date went well but Dongmin could feel the increasing doubt in his mind.

“Dongmin, you alright?”

“Hm?”

“You look kinda out of it,” Dohyun's voice was laced with concern and Dongmin felt bad.

“No, it's just- I've been thinking. The more we hung out before the date-”  _ fuck _ “-the less interested in dating you I became.”  _ Good job!  _ Dongmin gritted his teeth.

“I understand.”

“You do?” Dongmin took a gulp of water to save his dry mouth.

“Yeah, I kind of feel the same way too. Also I could tell there's someone else in your life,” he said. Dongmin choked on his water.

“What do you mean?”

“You're doubting because you like someone else, and frankly I want in because I've gotten to like you too much to see your heart break over someone, and before you deny it because you feel bad, I'm in the same boat.”

“Alright fine, I wanted a distraction and that distraction happened to be you.”

“And what did you want to be distracted from?”

Dongmin hesitated at answering, still unsure about what he felt. Knowing he's got nothing to lose, he let it go.

“A couple of weeks before you met me, there was someone I hung out with for months. Then we had a fight over his cat. His cat, adorable and good-natured, was uncharacteristically erratic after she came back and managed to trash my place. We argued and I said stuff I shouldn't have! We stopped talking and the silent treatment stretched on until I got my job and realised how much I actually missed him.” He took in a breath, winded.

“Go on,” Dohyun prompted.

_ “ _ So, my friends took me to the club, I met you and Bin saw us. I think I tried to apologise but being drunk I don't remember.”

“That's a lot,” he commented. “Are you planning to talk it out?”

“I do, it's just that I'm scared. Which is a running theme throughout my life, if you didn't know.”

“Yeah, but you're the only one who can change what happens next.”

“Wise words.”

“Thanks, I try,” he laughed.

“So do you like this Bin guy?”

“I don't know. Like you knew before I haven't dated anyone for years and that's because I was in a bad relationship. It kind of messed up my perception of genuine feelings so I decided to not engage in dating, until I met you and thought maybe one try. And obviously it won't work because apparently I'm interested in someone else.” Dohyun looked at him with understanding.

“So you're confused about your feelings, that's normal.”

“Maybe.” They sat quietly for some time.

“Want me tell you mine?”

“Sure.” Dongmin felt a sense of relief from telling someone outside of his friend group.

“I'm in a similar boat like I said, except he's seeing someone and I kind of had flings with multiple people to get my mind off him. Then I saw you and yeah.”

“Well, I hope it'll work out for you.”

“Same to you. I still really want to be your friend, if that wasn't obvious enough.”

“That's fine by me,” Dongmin replied. “Now I can say I have friends outside of my regular circle.”

“I'm glad I can get to be that.” Dohyun looked at his watch. “Wanna get going? I'll pay.”

“As long as I can pay you back?” Dongmin asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Of course, let's go.” He got up to pay while Dongmin walked out to the entrance.

Dongmin looked behind for a second before he realised he was about to clash into somebody.

“Sorry, I wasn't looking.”

“It’s fine Min,” he heard Bin say. Dongmin stared at the man in front of him once he regained balance, the first time in weeks and without the hazy view only caused by alcohol.

“Hi Bin,” Dongmin managed to say, the two lapsed into silence, looking at everything but the person in front of them.

“Dongmin, I-” Bin started.

“Hey Dongmin, you ready to go?” Dohyun asked as he came out of the restaurant. Dongmin turned to look at him. “Who's this?”

“He's Bin, my neighbour. Bin, this is Dohyun.” Bin bowed his head in greeting and Dohyun returned it. 

“I need to get going, it was nice meeting you,” Bin said.

“You too as well,” Dohyun replied. Dongmin froze when he felt Dohyun’s hand slipped around his shoulders. “C'mon babe, let's go.”

Dongmin's cheeks grew hot. “Bye Bin,” he managed to say before he was hustled away, not even wanting to see Bin's face.

“What was that!” Dongmin hissed after they rounded a corner.

“Trying to get your boy jealous.” Dohyun smirked. “Very obvious with his body language when he saw me. Come on you're working in a field that requires understanding body language!”

“Yeah but only when it comes to work not personal life!”

“Well now we have an idea about how he feels about you!”

“So what do we do?”

“How about fake dating?”

“And risk an even worse mess? No thanks!”

“No, what I meant is that you pretend you're seeing me to irk him enough to realise his feelings. Not dating so it won’t become a mess.”

“Maybe- wait does he actually like me?”

“Oh my God, Dongmin. I never took you to be an oblivious type but from what you told me, yes, you both like each other. You just need to mend your relationship with him and let your relationship flow.”

Dongmin knew that it was all that it takes to get back to seeing Bin regularly.

 

Dongmin and Dohyun parted ways with the reminder that they don't have to hang out to pretend since Bin had already seen them and went back home.

Dongmin was on the bus when he felt his phone buzz. Taking out his phone he saw Minhyuk calling.

“Yeah?”

“Dongmin, why did Bin come home with the most saddest and angriest expression I've ever seen?”

“You mean sullen?”

“That word.”

“I don't know, why are you asking me?”

“All I heard from him was your name and a bunch of other words, so I thought you did something.”

“Wow thanks, and yeah we saw each other and he saw my date.”

“Your what?”

“I was out with someone.”

“Oh, you were?”

“Yeah, still deciding on when to see him next.”

Minhyuk muttered a slew of words that sounded vaguely like curses before saying a quick bye and hanging up. Confusion flooded his mind until he realised that Bin may be upset about seeing him with someone.

When Dongmin entered his house, he got knocked down by Myungjun who made an effort in tackling him.

“Why didn't you tell me it was a date?”

“How did you know?” Dongmin choked out.

“A little rock told me.”

“Ah, fuck. Yeah it was but that's it!"

“What do you mean that's it?”

_ Crap _ . “I meant I don't know if there will be another date. You can never be certain right?”

“Well yeah, I guess. But why didn't you tell me?” Dongmin felt a wave of guilt from the hurt expression Myungjun had. “You always tell me things,” Myungjun said softly.

“I was caught up in the excitement, that's all. I'm sorry.”

Myungjun's face softened and got up. Dongmin sat up wheezing from the relief of freedom. “Is it bad to say that I've been seeing him longer since he works near me?”

“No, you're good. It's your life after all.” Dongmin sighed quietly. “I'm happy that you've got someone now.”

Dongmin smiled and hugged his friend, something he realised he had not done in awhile. 

Turned out everyone knew Dongmin was going out with someone that night and had let him know via a series of texts. He told Dohyun that the imaginary cat was out of the bag and that everything's going according to plan. To his chagrin he was teased for the next couple of days after that. Mostly from Myungjun, Jinwoo and Sanha, Minhyuk seemed to be avoiding him and Bin showed no signs of existing. Dongmin was worried and asked Jinwoo about the two. The older sure knew how to quickly change a subject.

 

“When should we fake seeing each other in a romantic way?” he asked Dohyun over the phone, a week and a half after the date happened.

“Well I'm leaving for a month long business trip in a couple of days so, maybe then?”

“Yeah that's cool,” Dongmin said.

“Any success with Bin?”

“Zilch. I barely see him, even when we first had the fight I saw him more often than now.” Dongmin could hear the sulk in his own voice.

“So what do you plan on doing?”

“I'm going to suck it up and go talk to him.”

“Thank God. You've been dancing around this subject since before I was even in the picture.”

Dongmin sighed. “You're right. Okay, have to go and do it.”

“Good luck,” Dohyun sang as Dongmin ended the call.

 

It took him more than a minute to pluck up the courage to venture over to Bin's place. When he felt ready he hopped down the stairs and flung open the door. He saw Bin straight away but… Dongmin stopped in his tracks. Something was wrong. He watched Bin carry a hastily bundled blanket to Jinwoo's car, there were panicked shouts coming from Jinwoo and Minhyuk who were right behind him. He saw the three get into the car and drive off. The sudden realisation that the bundle was possibly Jia made him sick to the stomach with worry. He crept back to his house and sat on the couch, flicking through channels to distract himself. 

He heard the front door open and click shut. Myungjun and Jinwoo sat down heavily next to him.

“Jinwoo, what happened?” Dongmin felt unsure about asking.

“Jia wasn't waking up from her nap, but she was still breathing so we got her to the vet. Bin and Minhyuk are still there but it doesn't look good.”

“Oh my God.” Dongmin sank lower into the couch, guilt and worry churning in his stomach.

The trio continued watching whatever was on the television until Jinwoo got a call some hours later.

“Yeah Minhyuk?” Dongmin listened in and watched Jinwoo's eyes widen. “Shit, is he okay?” Dongmin tensed, shooting looks at Jinwoo. Jinwoo waved his hand at him. “Alright, see you later.”

“Jinwoo-” Myungjun started.

“Jia wasn't responding to anything so Bin had to allow them to put her down. They're already back home.”

Dongmin processing the information, got up and ran out of the house. He knocked repeatedly on the door until it was opened by Minhyuk.

There was shock present in the younger man's eyes. “What are you doing here?”

“Can I see Bin?”

Minhyuk opened his mouth but closed it. “Knock yourself out, he's not doing great.”

“Are you okay?” Dongmin asked quietly. Minhyuk merely shrugged but Dongmin could see a sort of frailty in his eyes. “Go over to mine, I'll take care of Bin.” Minhyuk nodded and walked out.

Dongmin looked up the stairs and started climbing. He stood situated in front of Bin's room door. He raised his right hand and knocked slowly. He heard shuffling before the door slowly opened.

There stood the man that he had been longing to see. Dongmin took in his rough appearance and engulfed him in a hug. Bin did not take long to respond and Dongmin felt Bin's arms slide around his waist, gripping tightly.

“I'm sorry,” Dongmin whispered. “For everything.”

He felt the other in his arms shake, sobbing into his shoulder. All composure in Dongmin disappeared as he felt his own tears spill from his eyes, hugging Bin tighter, not even thinking of letting go.

“I'm sorry too,” Bin mustered, his voice muffled by Dongmin's shoulder.

They stayed that way for a couple of minutes, Dongmin could only feel the guilt dissolving as well as his legs slowly turning to jelly. When Bin let go, Dongmin tried to not feel disappointed. Bin rubbed his face with the front of his shirt while Dongmin used the back of his hand to wipe the tear tracks away.

Dongmin watched him slink back to his bed and followed him. The two of them sat quietly, the sounds of cars moving and a strong breeze rustling the leaves of the trees outside was all they could hear.

“Is it alright if can continue hugging you?” Dongmin heard a hint of embarrassment in Bin's voice. He nodded and pulled him back into his embrace. “I'm going to miss her.”

“I know, Bin. But it was for the best.”

Bin sniffed, choosing not to reply.

“Do you want to go out?” Dongmin asked after a while.

“Maybe, can we go for a drink?”

“Sure, let's go then.”

They got up and Dongmin waited for Bin to freshen up. When he was out, Dongmin texted the others that they were going out for a drink. They walked down to the stores and sat in one of the restaurants.

Dongmin ordered some drinks and food while carefully watching Bin. Once their order arrived, the two of them dug in. Dongmin watched in awe as Bin drank lots in between bites of food, having not seen him ever drink as much as he did before.

“Bin-” the other held up his hand.

“I can hold my alcohol pretty well.”

Dongmin wanted to believe him but he knew that Bin was on a journey to get himself drunk and he let him do so until it he was obviously drunk and finished the drinks instead. And when Dongmin means obviously he meant not, Bin was exactly the same but somehow he kept acting cutely towards him. He picked up the chopsticks, sticking one in Dongmin's hand and played with them, making noises likened to lightsabers. Dongmin took the chopsticks away from the drunk man and set them aside. He was taken aback when Bin started to pout. Not like he thought Bin was cute and found everything he did cute in someway once he came to terms with his feelings. But he decided to pay quickly and get Bin home just so he won't die on the spot.

He heaved Bin’s arm around his neck to support his weight to the protest of Bin. As the two walked, Dongmin heard Bin mumble something aloud.

“Hm?” he hummed turning his head to look at him. “Bin- oh my God,” he sighed when he saw him doze off as they were still walking. Bin was remarkably heavy and it took a lot of effort to half drag him to the nearest bench he could find. Dongmin groaned out loud when he sat the both of them down and Bin simply continued going in and out of sleep, snuggling into Dongmin’s side.

Dongmin tried to shake the sleeping drunk awake but to no avail, out of options and not as sober as he would like to be to walk any further with Bin, Dongmin resorted to calling Jinwoo. 

“Dongmin? Where are you?” he heard Jinwoo’s voice ask.

“The park down the road, Bin’s drunk, asleep and heavy. Need your help.”

“Are you drunk too?”   
“Only a little, please come and help.”

“Alright, be there in a few.”

Dongmin pocketed his phone and tried to wake him up once more. 

“Bin wake up,” he said. The other shifted, mumbling incoherently before opening his eyes with effort.

“Whatizzit?”

“Jinwoo’s on his way to help us get home.”   
“Why?” Bin asked rubbing his eyes.

“You’re too drunk to walk by yourself and I can’t carry you.”   
“Makes sense,” he replied before making himself at home in Dongmin’s side.

Dongmin leaned back into the bench and felt a poke on his shoulder. He turned his head to find Bin staring at him.

“What’re you doing?” Wrinkling his nose.

“Didn't like the way I felt when I saw you with Dohyun.” Bin pouted.

Dongmin's heart skipped a beat. “What do you mean?”

Bin squinted at him. “When he put his arm around you and called you babe, I realised something-” he slurred before dozing off again.

Dongmin cleared his throat out of embarrassment. Glancing between the man who made himself comfortable on his shoulder and the incoming Jinwoo who was strolling up to them. He prayed he did not look red.

“Need help?” Jinwoo asked.

“Please.”

With a nod, Jinwoo hauled Bin up from Dongmin's side and the two brought him home. They decided to let him sleep in Dongmin's house, warranting a surprise sleepover for the five of them. Minhyuk was already asleep on the couch, leaving the guest room available. After Bin was in bed, Dongmin got ready for bed. He laid on his bed and stared at the ceiling.

_ Did Bin really try confessing?  _ Was all he thought about.  _ He'll probably won't remember anyway plus I haven't properly broken up with Dohyun.  _

Which reminded him to shoot said man a text about Bin's almost confession.

Conversation ending with a winky face from Dohyun, Dongmin decided to sleep and prayed that he could without interruption.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello~  
> was supposed to upload this chapter ages ago but :') thanks for reading though and let me know what you think.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He knew Bin worked out and that dancing would help keep the physique but hell he has never seen him shirtless before. He quickly moved his eyes up to avoid being caught, brain shutting down as it struggled to find the connection between Bin's abs and ridiculously adorable sleepy face.

Dongmin woke up with a slight headache but nothing too bad and headed down to cook breakfast. He thought long and hard about what would cheer the others up and decided to make waffles.

“You can never go wrong with waffles,” he muttered to himself and proceeded to whip up a batch. He usually never made such an extravagant breakfast but it felt therapeutic making them. He made two waffles when he realised he did not have proper toppings for the food and decided to run down to the shops. After he turned off the waffle maker, he wrote a note to the others to not touch them and left.

When he was back he found that nobody was awake yet. The waffles were still kind of warm and he continued to make the rest.

Minhyuk was the first to wake up followed by Myungjun and Jinwoo. 

Dongmin felt a swell of pride when each of their faces lit up when they saw all the waffles.

“You've been busy this morning,” Myungjun commented. Dongmin smiled at that and left them to eat as much as they want.

“I'll go wake Bin up,” he informed them.

“Good luck,” Jinwoo and Minhyuk chimed together.

 

Waving them away, Dongmin hopped up the stairs and creeped into the guest room, quietly. The room was dark with a very small line of light coming through the curtains. 

“Bin,” he called, shaking the blanket bundled figure. “Wake up.” it took him a couple more minutes of repeating the same thing until the bundled moved.

“Too hungover, wake me up later,” the bundle croaked.

“I made waffles.” The bundle shifted until Dongmin could see his hair sticking out and his eye peeking behind the blanket.

“Waffles?”

“Yeah, I'm going to open the curtains so brace yourself,” Dongmin warned and slowly opened them.

“Fuck that hurts,” Bin complained. Dongmin turned away from the window to see Bin sitting up. Shirtless.

_ Ah. _

He knew Bin worked out and that dancing would help keep the physique but hell he has never seen him shirtless before. He quickly moved his eyes up to avoid being caught, brain shutting down as it struggled to find the connection between Bin's abs and ridiculously adorable sleepy face.

“Get a shirt on and come down, the meds are there too.”

Bin slid out of bed and grabbed the shirt that Dongmin held out to him. The two walked downstairs before Bin stopped him once they got to the bottom.

“Dongmin, did I say anything stupid while I was drunk?” Bin asked, cocking his head the side, a habit that Dongmin knew that would get him to answer whether it was true or not.

“No, you didn’t,” he lied. “You were knocked out most of the time. Now hurry up and eat.”

As Bin sat down at the table to devour the waffles, Dongmin got a call from Dohyun and excused himself to his room. 

“Yeah?”

“Any updates?” Dohyun asked.

“I may or may not have lied to Bin that he did not say anything when he was drunk,” Dongmin replied, clenching his teeth in embarrassment.

“Should we put the final nail in the coffin of this fake relationship then?”   
“Let’s go for it,” Dongmin agreed.

“You should say it.”

“Do I have to?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I'm officially breaking off this fake relationship with you.”

“Oh how polite of you,” Dohyun commended. They both laughed.

“It was fun while it lasted, thanks for getting my head out of the sand and good luck on your trip.”

“Thanks dude. Gotta go pack now, see you.” 

“Yeah, see you.” Dongmin ended the call and sighed.

He heard the door knock against the wall and whipped around to see Minhyuk at the doorway, shock and confusion etched in his features.

“M-minhyuk!” He stuttered. “Wait!-” he ran to grab him and shut the door behind them.

“Are you seriously fake dating someone to get my best friend jealous? Do you know how upset he was because of your fight and then seeing you going out with someone when he wanted to confess?” he spat.

“Minhyuk please listen to me, I was interested in Dohyun but I realised that I do like Bin and that I couldn't possibly date someone else while having feelings for another. I genuinely didn't know what I felt until it was pointed out!” 

Minhyuk crossed his arms as he looked up at him. “It's pretty shitty of you since it looked like you were toying with Bin's feelings.”

“We weren't planning on faking it until after he saw us together, so we ran with it. Dohyun and I already planned to stop the act after I mend my relationship with Bin.”

Minhyuk clenched and released his fists. “Fine. I hate how persuasive you are, note that I will remember and you must promise me to tell Bin the truth if the both of you start dating,” Minhyuk huffed.

“I will, I'm sorry that this happened. I know you're only looking out for him.”

“I'm sorry too; for assuming too much.”

“So, he was going to confess?”

Minhyuk rolled his eyes. “He was, he has a ridiculously massive crush on you but then you guys had the fight and he felt horrible afterwards so he avoided you.”

“Why didn't he say anything?”

“The both of you are pretty dense and stubborn what did you think would happen unless the both of you talked and apologised?”

“I need to work on that. I didn't know I liked him in that way until literally last week so…”

“Exactly what I meant.”

“So is there a guarantee that if I confess he would reciprocate?”

“That's for you to find out, but I can guarantee a happy ending for you. Just not too fast considering yesterday.” 

“You doing okay?”

“Yeah I'll get by, I'm more worried about Bin.”

“I'll help you make him feel better if you want?”

Minhyuk smirked and dragged Dongmin out of the room.

Dongmin could sense that the group were upset about Jia but had kept quiet about it for the sake of Bin. They chatted together and the atmosphere was calm, Dongmin saw Bin slowly ease himself into the conversation.

A text from Minhyuk in the middle of eating, planned an outing for the group to go to the movies. Giving the okay, Minhyuk then asked the rest and Dongmin waited for them to agree or disagree.

“How about laser tag instead?” Jinwoo suggested. “I haven't heard about any good movies in the cinema right now.”

“That's even better,” Minhyuk replied. The others agreed and hurried off to get dressed while Jinwoo and Minhyuk handled the booking. 

“Bin, are you alright?” Dongmin asked as he noticed he had not moved at all once the plans were discussed.

“I don't know.” Was the wobbly response. Concerned Dongmin sat down next to him.

“Do you want to go to laser tag?”

“Yeah, totally. I just feel empty considering I had to put Jia down only yesterday.” Bin looked up at him with bloodshot eyes.

“Bin it's okay. We can push the plan to another day. Do you want time to yourself? I understand how much she meant to you.”

The other shook his head. “No I want to go out, I want a distraction and I feel I've been away from you guys for way too long.” Bin smiled at him, the waver in his voice subsided.

“Okay then.” Dongmin smiled back.

 

The others came back into the house practically yelling their heads off at Bin who has yet to change. Bin hurried off before he could be chewed out by the older two. When everything was in order, the group piled into Jinwoo's car and drove to the laser tag place. After the group was out they were met by Sanha. A face Dongmin had not seen in a while and greeted the youngest happily. 

The worker that ran the place went through the instructions with them after they put on the gear and placed them into three teams of two. It was an elimination game and the team will be out if both members get shot six times

“You have 30 minutes in game, good luck,” the worker said after they entered the game room. 

The teams ran as far away from each other and waited for the countdown to finish. Chaos ensued as the two teams shot each other. Dongmin ran with Bin avoiding the other teams as they shot at them.

They were huddled under a concealed covering, breathing heavily as they escaped the wrath of their friends.

“So, how're you doing?” Bin asked.

“Doing great, never been so afraid in my life.” Dongmin laughed. You?”

“Mind is distracted and I don't feel like shit.”

“How about we stay here until one of the other two teams take each other out?”

“Sounds like a plan. I'm still hungover.”

“I could guess that,” Dongmin teased, yelping slightly when Bin shoved him.

The two of them stayed quiet, save for some soft giggling caused by the screams of their friends as they attack one another.

“Are we good now?” Dongmin asked.

“Yeah, I missed you Min.”

“I missed you too.” Dongmin grinned.

“TEAM TWO IS OUT, TEAM ONE AND THREE REMAIN. YOU HAVE 15 MINUTES LEFT,” the speaker announced.

“That was kinda fast, never thought Myungjun and Jinwoo had it in them,” Bin commented.

“Should we wait here until time is out or they find us?”

“Yeah let's do that. It'll probably be hilarious if they can't find us.”

The two of them made themselves comfortable as they waited. Giggling each time Jinwoo and Myungjun yelled out in frustration for not being able to find them.

Dongmin was about to speak when Bin's hand clamped around his mouth and pulled them back deeper into the crevice. Holding a finger to his own mouth, the two listened to Jinwoo and Myungjun's voices draw near. Hearts pumping, they continued to listen until the voices seem to have moved away.

Dongmin felt Bin's hand move slowly off, accidentally brushing his lips. He withheld the squeak that threatened to come out, his lips still tingling from the touch. Bin looked at him and Dongmin had not realised how close they were. He honestly did not know what happened next but one time he was looking into Bin's eyes and at his lips, the next Bin was leaning in.

“AHA!” Jinwoo crowed and the two jumped apart. “Myungjun! There's a hiding spot here.”

Dongmin and Bin readied their guns. Bin counted down. 3. 2\. 1. And the both of them jumped out and shot at the other team.

They lost.

The older two whooped and cheered as they walked out of the place. Bin and Dongmin mocked lamented their loss with Minhyuk and Sanha.

Dongmin watched Bin laugh as he gave the younger two a head lock as they teased him for losing. He hoped he was feeling better. Bin mentioned he wanted some food to eat and they decided to order fast food and go home. The group talked and laughed as they waited in line while Myungjun quickly gathered their money to pay. The atmosphere was a familiar feeling, back to where it was before the last few months happened and Dongmin felt at peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that happened o_O  
> i'll try to update next week! thanks for reading and comment to let me know what you think about this chapter and the last <3


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You've kept me sane after Jia died. I don't know what I would've done without you, Hyuk and the others.”
> 
> “I don't know what I would've done if you weren't there for me today.”
> 
> “I will always be there for you Min.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So maybe I forgot to change the upload date for chapter 10 last week so if you haven't read it then please do before you read this chapter!

Dongmin was finally at work and officially part of the staff. Although he was a rookie, his time from the internship helped him juggle the many tasks he had thrown at him. None of which could prepare him for the moment that made him feel so scared.

“Dongmin, I would like you to meet our client,” his supervisor said.

Dongmin, wide eyed with excitement, followed her to an office. When they got there the client’s back was turned to them as they conversed with one of Dongmin's coworkers. The voice was familiar but he could not place it.

“This is our client,” Mrs. Choi introduced, the man turned around and Dongmin froze. _No._ “Yun Sunghun.” _No!_

Dongmin covered his shock with a warm smile as he tried to keep his professionalism by greeting the man. Whether or not he recognised Dongmin was unknown because he showed no signs of it as he shook his hand.

“We will be helping with a lawsuit against his company.” Dongmin nodded his head as his supervisor spoke, his mind on autopilot while he jotted down notes and ignored the man that sat across from him.

 

After Dongmin was dismissed he hurried to the elevator but to his horror, Sunghun caught it. Dongmin kept quiet as he waited anxiously for the elevator to hit the ground floor.

“Dongmin,” he heard the sickly honey voice of the man he used to date enter his ears. “It's been awhile.”

Dongmin forced himself to answer. “It has.”

“How have you been doing?” Dongmin could hear him get closer.

“Doing lawyer stuff,” he replied curtly.

“Always so rude.” Sunghun smiled. Dongmin felt himself backed into the corner of the elevator, Sunghun’s hand gripped onto his shoulder, towering over him. “I missed you. Did you miss me?”

“No, I didn't.” Dongmin prayed the panic he was feeling did not show on his face.

“That's not very nice of you, Dongminnie.” Sunghun raised another hand to brush away Dongmin's fringe, forcing him to look.

“Don't call me that.”

“Why? Don't you remember what I did for you? Or was it all wasted because you wanted to break up?”

“You knew what you did. Leave me alone,” Dongmin muttered.

“Can't I'm your client and until the lawsuit is dealt with, you will be seeing me regularly.”

The elevator doors finally opened and Dongmin bolted out of Sunghun's grip to find a bathroom to hide in. He chose the very last cubicle and locked himself in. Panic and turmoil engulfed his mind and body. Silent sobs wracked his body as he tried to rid of the memories of his relationship. He had no idea how long he was there for but he heard the door open and voice of his saviour call out.

“Dongmin? Are you in here?” Bin called.

“No,” he sniffled. He heard Bin walk up to the cubicle he was residing in.

“Can I come in?” Bin asked softly. Dongmin contemplated his options, on one hand he could pretend nothing happened but on the other Bin could easily deduce that he was not fine. He unlocked the cubicle and Bin entered.

“Min, what happened? You weren't in the lobby and the receptionist said she saw you run in here after you were out of the elevator.”

“It’s my ex- he's my client. I was shocked at first and I thought he didn't recognise me. But then we were in the elevator and he told me he missed me and I suddenly felt like the same 17 year old that first fell in love with that prick and the 20 year old that got forcibly outed to his parents because I broke up with him.” Dongmin rambled, his tears were still streaming, hot and fast. He felt Bin's hand envelope his as he crouched in front of him, his face scrunched in worry.

“Are you going to do something about it?”

“I-i don't know,” Dongmin hiccuped. Bin pulled him into cramped hug. There was no room in the cubicle for two grown men, so the hug was only Bin holding his head.

Bin walked out of the cubicle and came back with a paper towel soaked in cold water.

“To reduce the swelling and redness,” he whispered. Dongmin thanked him and pressed the cool towel against his eyes after he wiped his eyes and nose. Bin held his head up to check if he was okay to go back out and not looking like he did cry, gently caressing his cheek.

“Alright, let's go.” Bin held his hand out. Dongmin looked at it before he took it.

They exited the cubicle and the bathroom. Dongmin was so on edge, he did not realise how hard he was holding Bin's hand until they were out of the building. He smiled apologetically when he let go, in which Bin shook his head at him.

“It's alright,” he said. Bin cooly looped his arm around Dongmin's and lead him to “The Vanilla Bean”. He never thought he would step inside the place once more. Dongmin breathed in the smell of baking, coffee and vanilla, a soft smile spread across his lips. The familiar sight of Bin's aunt coming over to greet them brought him comfort.

“Dongmin, I haven't seen in you in awhile,” Bin's aunt greeted as she gave him a hug.

Dongmin went to sit down at the regular place while he waited for Bin to finish talking to his aunt. He tried to pretend that he was not trying to listen on what they were saying, but he could hear parts of the conversation. Something to do with something giant. Bin sat back down and smiled at Dongmin. The big goofy one that made his eyes smaller and show his teeth, the one Dongmin had grown to love.

“Aunt was worried so I told her you were just stressed.”

“That actually makes me feel a bit better.”

“Wait until you find out what she whipped up for you.”

“Oh?”

A few minutes later, Bin's aunt came up to them with two giant milkshakes with cakes and sandwiches.

Dongmin's jaw dropped in surprise earning a giggle from Bin who got up to help set the tray down.

“You didn't have to-” Bin's aunt waved her hand at him.

“Nonsense, you look peckish. Eat up.”

Dongmin obliged and took a bite of a sandwich and a sip of the milkshake. Appetite returning, he ate a bit faster with Bin following suit. After finishing half of the plate of food and his milkshake, Dongmin looked out of the window. The universe sure had it out for him because Sunghun was standing a few feet away from the cafe.

“B-bin,” he stuttered, grappling at his hand.

“What?” He heard him ask but Dongmin was too busy looking at his ex.

“It's him,” he simply replied. Terror already curling around his throat. He hadn't noticed his hands were starting to shake as his mind battled all the emotions that were flooding in. _Is he looking for me?_ He creeped low until he was hidden from view. Bin seemed to have gotten the memo as he quickly pulled him to the staff room to hide. As soon as Bin quietly shut the door, Dongmin heard Sunghun's voice greet the staff at the counter.

“I texted my aunt about him, hopefully it's just a coincidence and he isn't looking for you.” Dongmin nodded his head listlessly, already tired out. “Dongmin?”

“Hm?”

“Do you mind telling me exactly what happened between the two of you?”

Dongmin looked down at his hands. _I have nothing left to lose_. “It was the last year of school, and he started talking to me and I thought cool, someone like him is willing to talk to me. I was friends with Myungjun then but he had already graduated so I was pretty much on my own. Then I started to realise I had feelings for him and he said the same thing. We start dating and it was dandy until we got to uni. I found out he was cheating on me. I let it slide the first time because he convinced me and I was too stupid to think critically-” Dongmin roughly brushed his hand through his hair. “-He started hanging out with other people and before I knew it he was no longer the person I knew. He flew passed my judgement by acting all sweet but it always had an ulterior motive. I got mad at him when I found out he was doing so much shit behind my back and Myungjun managed to talk me into breaking up with him. That's when everything went to shit.”

  


…

 

_Dongmin was busy working on an assignment when he heard shouting from downstairs. Hurrying down, he soon found Sunghun yelling as his dad tried to get him out while his mum screamed that she was going to call the police._

_“You!” Sunghun shouted when he saw him. “How could you betray me?”_

_“What does he mean Dongmin?” His mum asked._

_“I was dating your son! He didn't want to tell you because he’s embarrassed and a coward!” Dongmin froze in shock. He could not find his voice to retaliate. His parents stared at him and all he could hear was the blood pumping in his ears. He tore down the stairs and pushed Sunghun out._

_“What is wrong with you?” Dongmin snapped already smelling the alcohol._

_Sunghun smirked at him. “Getting revenge.”_

_“By outing me? To my parents? Because I broke up with you?”_

_“We were happy together.”_

_“I thought we were. But you betrayed me by cheating multiple times.”_

_Sunghun's smirk faltered. “But I loved you.”_

_“This isn’t love, you never loved me! Even after I gave you my all. Even when I forgave you. If you loved me, you wouldn't have done such shitty stuff to me. You are the coward here and I don’t want you to ever come near me after this.”_

_He didn't see it coming. Pain blossomed across his cheek and he was knocked to the ground. All Dongmin could hear was his parents screaming and saw Sunghun run off. He pushed himself up, his mum already by his side._

_“Sweetie, why did Sunghun do this to you? What happened?”_

_Dongmin shook his head before she lead him to his room. Dongmin was quiet while she checked the bruising on his cheek._

_“Mum, I'm gay.” His heart clenched when he saw her flinch as soon as the words left his mouth._

_“Come on, let's get you to bed,” she said, seemingly ignoring what he said, the sentence alone made him feel 10 years old. Dongmin stayed quiet then, it was one of the few times his parents were home since he started university and they see this bombshell. His mind mulled over the quiet panic that was building. After his mum left his room, he quickly opened his laptop and looked at the email stating the availability of the dorm room he applied for._

…

 

“So he outed and punched you in front of your parents?” Bin asked in disbelief. Dongmin nodded and Bin could see he was trying to hold it together. He reached out to hold Dongmin's hand and squeezed it.

“It sucks that something like that can reduce me to nothing and feel younger than I am; making me not the 25 year old I'm supposed to be. I've even cried my eyes out in the office bathroom! It's so humiliating.”

It hurt him to hear Dongmin say that. But he couldn't bring himself to say anything of value to comfort him except to continue holding Dongmin's hand. Bin checked his phone to find a text from his aunt saying that Sunghun has left the cafe.

“He left, we can go now.” Dongmin nodded and the two left the room. Bin apologised to his aunt and told her he would explain later before they headed out.

“I need to go back to work.”

“Are you sure?” Bin asked, hoping he would say no as looking at Dongmin alone shows that he is not in perfect condition to focus on working. “You're tired out from what happened.”

“Yeah, never mind then. I'll let them know I'm not feeling great even though…”

“It will be fine Min.”

The two of them went to Bin's house. Jinwoo was on a work trip outside of the city and Minhyuk was at the studio but won't be coming home as he would be staying at Sanha's. There's nothing going on Minhyuk told him when he started to tease him. But Bin knew he has been slowly getting charmed by the tall kid's personality ever since they met.

Bin ushered Dongmin to the couch after he unlocked the door. He continued to lightly coddle Dongmin with blankets (despite the weather) and food until he was not exuding a nervous aura and was calmed down. As they played a couple rounds of Street Fighter, Dongmin told him he'll talk with his supervisor tomorrow and thanked him for helping him to stay grounded.

“You've kept me sane after Jia died. I don't know what I would've done without you, Hyuk and the others.”

“I don't know what I would've done if you weren't there for me today.”

“I will always be there for you Min.”

Dongmin smiled at him. It was small and it made Bin feel soft and gooey inside. A thought planted itself in his mind, something he had pondered in passing. He wanted to kiss Dongmin but the thing was he never truly knew how much he wanted to until that almost kiss at laser tag and when Dongmin's lips were on his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder what happened there O_o  
> Hope you enjoyed this chapter to some extent and let me know what you thought on my Twitter or the comment section below! <3


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I'm here Min,” he whispered, unsure if he was heard. But the fitful guy relaxed and went into a more deeper and peaceful slumber, Bin smiled and shifted close so that he could continue to hold Dongmin's hand while he slept; Bin's eyes fluttered shut and he finally fell asleep.

Bin took awhile to process what was happening. But it all came down to the fact that  _ Dongmin was kissing him. _ The kiss was so quick that Bin did not have enough time to kiss back. The two of them stared at each other after Dongmin pulled away. His face was slowly turning red and Bin could only guess that his own face was just as.

“I-um-I’m sorry about that-” Dongmin started. Bin did not answer as he was too busy thinking about the kiss.

“No, it's okay-” He touched his lips. “-just wasn't expecting that.”

“Should've confessed before doing that,” Dongmin whispered.

_ What? _

“Sorry what?”

“Did I say that out loud?”

“Yes, you said you should've confessed.”

“Oh geez.”

“Do you like me? In a romantic way?” Bin ignored his rapidly beating heart.  _ Stupid thing to say Bin. _

“I wouldn't have kissed you if I didn't.” Dongmin smiled shyly. “Sorry that was too cheesy. This was not how I planned to confess after the day I had especially.”

“Tell me how you would do it then.”

“Uh-well like casually maybe. Since I knew you liked me as well-”

“Woah woah woah wait- who told you?”

Dongmin paused, his eyes wide open like a deer caught in headlights. “Minhyuk. But apparently everyone else knew you liked me except me.”

Bin snorted and slapped his hands onto his face. “We're so dumb, the dumbest people on Earth in fact,” he said muffled by his hands.

“You bet.” Was the muted response.

Bin removed his hand and looked at Dongmin, who was hiding his face between the couch cushions. 

“Can we start over?” Dongmin asked.

“Go ahead.”

Dongmin lifted his head. “Bin I-i like you a lot and I actually was going to wait to confess but emotions got to me and I just had to do it.” Bin was close to losing it over seeing how flustered Dongmin was.

“What changed your mind?” Bin asked softly.

“After what happened today, with Sunghun and all.”

Bin smiled at him, his brain completely short circuiting from seeing his crush confess, and leaned in closer to Dongmin. “You can kiss me again, if you want.”

Dongmin gaped at him. “D-don't get me flustered again.”

“You did it first,” Bin giggled.

“We're such a mess and the guys aren't going to let us live this down when they find out.”

Realisation dawned on him. “Oh my God! They won't would th-” Bin was shut up by Dongmin kissing him again. And once more, before he could react, Dongmin pulled away. “You need to stop pulling away each time you kiss me.”

“Show me then,” Dongmin countered, raising an eyebrow.

Bin gulped. He placed his hand behind Dongmin's neck and leaned in to kiss. It's not like Bin had never kissed someone before but he may be a tad out of practice and overeager because he bashed his nose straight into Dongmin's.

Yelping they pulled away as they clutched their noses.

“Sorry! Take five,” Bin groaned and pushed himself to one side of the couch.

A phone started ringing and Bin watched Dongmin answer.

“Yeah? I'm with Bin.” Dongmin paused and looked back at Bin with his deer like wide eyes. “Uh nothing, just gaming. I need to tell you something. Yeah I'll ask him. Okay see you soon.” Dongmin put away his phone. “That was Myungjun, he wants to come over.”

“Oh okay. Maybe we should figure this-” he pointed between the two of them. “-out later?”

“Good plan.”

They sat there and started another match of Street Fighter while they waited for Myungjun. His butt was getting kicked in the last round by Dongmin, making him hatch out a plan that may secure a win.

“Hey, Min?” Bin asked as he launched an attack.

“Hm?” Dongmin answered, dodging his character’s attack.

“I liked you since the moment I met you, you looked adorable in your glasses and hoodie.” Bin smirked when he heard him squawk in surprise and at the sound of the remote controller falling onto the floor. Cheering in delight when he won the match.

“You did that on purpose!”

Bin stuck his tongue out at him as he exited the game. “I'm not kidding though. I nearly melted on the spot when you pulled down your face mask. Like what kind of angel has come to grace me with his presence?” Bin tried dodging the pillow that Dongmin flung at him but it hit him square in the face. He tackled Dongmin onto his back before being somehow pushed onto his own after the other stuck a finger in his ribs, his weak spot.

“How did you?”

“Minhyuk told me.” Bin scrunched his face in disbelief.

A few seconds went by in silence.

“Well, this is a perfect opportunity to try for a proper kiss.”

“Cheesiness won't get you anywhere,” Dongmin chuckled.

Dongmin was still hovering over Bin, so he took the initiative and pushed himself up to kiss him. Out of the three they had attempted, this one was better. Dongmin did not pull away like he did before and lowered his body down, allowing Bin to take in the feel of Dongmin's lips on his. Butterflies spread from his stomach to every inch of his body as he melted into the kiss. He felt himself smile when Dongmin ran his fingers through his hair.

When they finally pulled apart, panting as they caught their breaths. Pink dusted Dongmin's cheeks and Bin giggled at that, laying a short peck on his nose. They heard the front door open and they froze in place.

“Hey Dongmin, Bin! Where are you?” Myungjun called. His footsteps drew closer until he was in the living room. Dongmin was visible as he was sitting on top of Bin.

“Oh there you are Dongmin. Where's Bin?”

In that moment Bin decided to be a little shit and popped his head up.

The reaction seemed to happen in slow motion, Myungjun's face went from usual happy to complete shock while Dongmin pushed Bin back down on the couch.

“It's not what it looks like!” Dongmin explained.

“It's exactly what it looks like. Look at Bin's hair and your face is pink! It's obvious that you two were making out!” Myungjun yelled back. Bin touched his hair on instinct. “What's going on?”

“We… confessed?” Bin answered. Dongmin was already off of him so he could answer the shocked eldest.

“I need to lie down,” Myungjun finally replied. Bin felt like he was caught by his parents not by his friend's boyfriend. He watched Myungjun slump next to Dongmin. “Watching you both dance around each other after your fight where one had feelings for the other while the other had not yet realised his, was one of the most exhausting things I had to experience. Thank God you confessed.”

Bin noticed Dongmin was getting fidgety and decided to leave the two to talk about what happened while he went to shower. When he was back down, Dongmin was by himself.

“Hey,” Bin greeted.

“Hey, Myungjun went back to our house.” Dongmin had slightly bloodshot eyes and his nose was a little red. Bin sat next to him and slid his left arm around Dongmin's shoulders. “I told him what happened at work and he took it pretty well for someone who promised me he would castrate Sunghun if he ever glances at me after the incident.”

“Myungjun's pretty scary.”

“Yeah, he is,” Dongmin laughed. “Mind if I quickly disappear for a bit to my house and shower?”

“Not at all.” Dongmin the left and came back half an hour later.

“What do we do now?” Dongmin asked.

“It's 10pm and it's already the weekend. So, movie time?” Bin asked, cocking his head to the side because he knows the tactic works on Dongmin.

“Fine. What movie?”

“All the Marvel films.” Bin grinned.

“Alright then,” Dongmin conceded. “Speaking my language now.”

“Have to do whatever it takes to make you happy,” Bin said quietly, earning another smile from Dongmin.

“And I'll do the same with you.” 

Bin got up to get the player working for their movie marathon. And Dongmin laid his head on Bin's shoulder once he sat down.

“So are we together together then?” Bin asked as the opening of the movie started.

“Yes.” Was the quiet but satisfying answer.

The two binged through three movies before Bin realised Dongmin had fallen asleep. Pausing the fourth movie, Bin gently woke him up.

“Did I fall asleep?” Came the sleepy voice.

“You did, come on let's go to bed.” Bin went up the stairs while the sleepy Dongmin trailed behind.

“I'll go get some blankets, would you mind pulling out the bed from under mine?”

“No problem,” Dongmin replied.

Bin hurried out to get what he needed and headed back to the room although it took longer than expected. 

Dongmin was already asleep on his bed when Bin found him. He was curled tightly under the blanket, in the middle of the bed as if he wanted to protect himself from imaginary danger. Bin placed the pillows and blanket on the pulley bed and laid down. He scrolled through his phone until he felt his eyes droop, turning off the lamp light he tried to fall asleep. Through his lashes he looked at Dongmin and how the moonlight that streamed through the curtains danced on his skin, accentuating every facial feature and making him more ethreal than he usually is when he's awake. Bin's eyes closed and opened to find that Dongmin had shifted nearer, Bin giggled quietly but the sound made Dongmin shift more. His arm slowly unfurled from under his chest to brush the top of Bin's forearm, the touch of his fingertips ever so soft and feather-like. Bin felt his breath hitch at the back of his throat, surprised by the contact. He heard Dongmin whimper in his sleep, something in his dream seemed to be bothering him. Bin decided to reach out and hold Dongmin’s hand in his.

“I'm here Min,” he whispered, unsure if he was heard. But the fitful guy relaxed and went into a more deeper and peaceful slumber, Bin smiled and shifted close so that he could continue to hold Dongmin's hand while he slept; Bin's eyes fluttered shut and he finally fell asleep.

 

…

 

Dongmin woke up to find Bin's hand in his. He felt a blush rise to his cheeks. He tried to remove his hand but it did not budge, frowning he tried to pry his hand from Bin's death grip with little success. Each time he moved Bin's grip grew tight.

“Bin get up,” Dongmin said. Nothing.

He heard a knock on the door and found Myungjun standing there.

“Having trouble there?” He asked. Dongmin huffed in reply. “Here take a look at the photo I took of you two earlier.”

Dongmin looked at the photo that Myungjun had on his phone while pretending that he did not melt from seeing the image.

“Thanks, now go away I'll figure this out.” He shooed. Myungjun reached over to ruffle his hair before leaving him and the sleeping Bin. Groaning loudly, Dongmin pressed his face into the pillow. He really needs to pee.

“Bin, wake up. I need to go to the bathroom.” The sleeping man shifted and yawned but continued sleeping. “You asshole. I know you’re awake.”

He saw a ghost of a smile crossed his captivator’s face before turning neutral. Dongmin moved his body until he could use his free hand to boop Bin’s nose.

“Hey.”  _ Boop. _ “Hey.”  _ Boop. _ “H-”

“Stop,” Bin whined croakily.

“Let go of my hand then.”

“This?” Bin asked, raising their clamped hands.

“Yes?” Dongmin frowned.

Dongmin watched Bin bring his hand to his lips and gave it a kiss before releasing it. His brain malfunctioned as he stumbled out of bed to the bathroom. Locking the door, Dongmin quickly relieved himself, washed his hands and repeatedly splashed his hot face.

Dongmin's going to die from Bin's charm before they can even start properly going out. Already planning to smooch the heck out of him, Dongmin brushed his teeth with a spare toothbrush from the cupboard and went back out. He was still tired from the day before and proceeded to slump back on Bin's bed. The owner of the bed followed not long after and sat on the pulley bed.

“So…”

“So…” Dongmin echoed.

“Movie time?”

“Need motivation to get up.” Dongmin covered himself with the blanket.

“We're together for one day and you're already adopting some of my quirks.”

“Or maybe it's because i've known you for more than half a year?” Dongmin did not receive an answer and heard the springs of the mattress squeak as Bin got on top of him and laid down. “Bin please you're really heavy,” he wheezed. “C'mon it's hot.”

“Bargain something.”

“What do you want?”

“A kiss,” Bin whispered.

“Pfft. Okay.” Bin pulled the blanket away. Dongmin was still trapped and gulped when he saw the smirk on his face. He closed his eyes when Bin moved forward and waited for the kiss. What he got instead was a gross raspberry on his cheek. Yelling and trying his damnedest to break free to attack the evildoer proved difficult and tiring. When he finally disentangled himself from the blanket, he ran downstairs to find Bin. He was met with Myungjun making breakfast.

“Where's Bin?”

“Living room.”

Dongmin thanked him and creeped to Bin's supposed location.

_ I'm in my mid-twenties and playing hide and seek with my b- the person I'm currently kissing who I also really like a lot. _

“Bin?”

“I'm here.” Dongmin peered over the couch and found Bin laying on the ground. “Hey.”

“You're gross, did you know that?” Dongmin leaned on the top of the couch.

“A tiny bit. Help me up please?” Bin asked thrusting his hands out towards him. “I’m sore.”

Dongmin pretended to think for a moment before sitting on the couch and ignored the whines of Bin as he turned on the next Marvel movie. Myungjun came around and sat down next to him and gave him a bowl of cereal; also ignoring Bin. Dongmin soon took pity on him and helped Bin sit up. The trio then marathoned a good amount of films before Myungjun had to leave for work related reasons. Dongmin let Bin slouch into his side, a moment later small kiss was pressed into his shoulder. He looked at Bin who was smiling up at him.

“When should we tell the others about us?”

“I'm sure Myungjun has told Jinwoo, don't know about Minhyuk and Sanha,” Dongmin replied.

“Phones aren't buzzing like crazy so they probably don't know.”

Dongmin thought about telling Bin about him and Dohyun, something he agreed with Minhyuk if he and Bin start dating. Bin was immersed in the movie that Dongmin felt his heart rate pick up from nerves as the many possible outcomes flashed in his mind.

“Dongmin? What's wrong?” Bin asked and paused the movie.

“Remember Dohyun?” Dongmin reminded slowly. Bin's expression darkened a bit.

_ Hope he takes it well. _

“Yeah, why?”

“Well. You see. Dohyun...and I weren't actually a thing. And I'm telling you this because I don't want this kept secret while we date.”

“What do you mean?”

“We were fake going out because I realised that on the very one date we went on together I really liked you instead. Dohyun wanted to help us reconcile with each other and offered to fake date but I wasn't sure about it so we went the fake seeing each other route to avoid a potential mess.” Dongmin's voice grew quiet at the end of his sentence as he waited for Bin to process the information.

“Oh. Okay. So what you had with Dohyun was fake?”

“Yes. He kinda picked up that you liked me when you first met him.”

“Was I that obvious? Don't answer that.” Dongmin giggled. “You know what I think I'm alright with that.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you were being honest and I appreciate it.” Dongmin happily wrapped his arms around him as he laid a giant smooch on Bin's lips. The receiver of said smooch spluttered in surprise and Dongmin laughed at how cute he was being. “Can I have another?” Bin whispered after he recovered. Dongmin nodded and gently kissed Bin, their Marvel marathon temporarily forgotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ha. ha. hahaha. this is quite awkward but i had fun writing it, we'll find out about what happens with the Sunghun situation next week (hopefully). Let me know what you thought and thank you for reading <3


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Bin did you just-” his eyes located his red knuckles.
> 
> “Yeah I did,” he replied, hiding his hand behind his back.
> 
> “Oh my God,” he said dumbly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas!  
> Sorry for the long wait, got a little busy with final exams, graduation and holiday preparations but now I'm back!

 

Dongmin forgot his supervisor does not appreciate being called on the weekend. But he had insisted it was urgent via texts, to which she relented and let him call. Dongmin explained why we wanted out of the case and let another one of his peers to work on it because he was connected with the client and that there could be a possibility it could backfire on them. She was not happy about it but allowed him to drop out and told him he can work on something else when he is back on Monday.

Slinking back to the couch to lie down on top of Bin, his not yet boyfriend asked him about what he talked about with his supervisor. Dongmin told him that he was allowed to drop the case and to work on something else.

“What about Sunghun?” Dongmin shrugged.

“Can't do much, he's a client and the company simply cannot drop the case themselves unless the client decides to.”

“I don't like that he'll still be near you.”

“I know. I'll have to ghost hardcore if he tries to interact with me again.”

Bin hugged him close and Dongmin breathed in and out slowly.

His mind drifted to a want, no, a need to stay all day on Monday with Bin. He was not keen on returning to work after what happened.

He hummed quietly while Bin threaded his hand through his hair and Dongmin gave him a small peck on the cheek.

Small moments like this did not help his growing desire to not show up at work. But he has to be responsible. Dongmin just hoped he won't see Sunghun at all, but knowing that the case would take awhile, he had to suck it up if he encountered him again.

 

Dongmin thankfully did not see Sunghun until after the case was finalised for court some weeks later.

He was leaving to go home and meet Bin but Sunghun somehow managed to trap him in the elevator again.

“It's a pity that you aren't taking my case anymore. I thought we could reconcile.”

Dongmin shook his head. “No you've had many chances given by me and you didn't care. If you wanted to start over you shouldn't have fucking outed me to my parents in the first place. If you really wanted to reconcile you wouldn't have been acting like a slimy pimp the moment you set foot in this building. So get away from me right now.”

Sunghun raised his hands in surrender and backed off. Dongmin felt the tension in his shoulder release a bit and patiently waited for the elevator to reach the ground floor. He walked out of the elevator when he felt a hand wrap around his forearm. Stiffening, he tried his best to break out of Sunghun's grip.

“Let go of me,” he hissed, Sunghun's grip tightened painfully and Dongmin became hyperaware of the environment surrounding them. He did not want to make a scene especially with a client of the company.

“Follow me and we can talk about the two of us.”

“No. We were toxic together when will you get it in your head that we can never be together again.” Dongmin felt like he was repeating himself. “Why do you believe I would drop everything and go back to you?”

Sunghun started to pull him to the exit, ignoring him.

Something flashed past the side of his peripheral vision and he watched Sunghun fall to the ground.

Someone pulled him and he stumbled backwards. He was dragged out of the building and found himself in the hands of Bin.

“Bin did you just-” his eyes located his red knuckles.

“Yeah I did,” he replied, hiding his hand behind his back.

“Oh my God,” he said dumbly. On one hand he was glad Bin was the one to punch Sunghun but on the other hand he was worried about what the consequences were. And to their luck Sunghun came stumbling out. Bin placed himself in front of him.

Sunghun scoffed. “Interesting. How can someone as unworthy of love get someone like him to protect you?”

_ Ok that's new. _

“And now that he punched me I'll have a nice chat with your supervisor about how you were the cause of this,” he continued.

Dongmin stood in front of Bin to prevent him from pummeling the shit out of Sunghun as tempting as it was; but he did not want the situation to escalate especially when his job was being threatened. He grabbed Bin's arm and walked away.

He had no clue where he was going he just kept walking.

“Dongmin stop.”

Dongmin halted in his tracks. He was breathing painfully and his vision was tinged yellow.

“Why can't he leave me alone?”

Bin did not say anything. Dongmin hated that Sunghun could get to him so easily. He thought he would be alright now that he was not a part of the case. But of course he wasn't.

Dongmin let Bin take him home.

Absolutely pathetic.

 

Dongmin huddled himself in the corner of his couch. Bin handed him a cup of tea that he drank listlessly. He noticed that Bin's knuckles were still red.

“You should get some ice on that.” He pointed out.

Bin looked at his hand. “I'm fine. Don't worry.”

Dongmin sat his tea down and gently took Bin's hand in his to inspect it. It was alarmingly red and he could see that some of the skin was peeling off.

“Does it hurt?”

“Not that much really.” Dongmin did not let go of his hand and instead, pulled Bin down to sit next to him. He leaned his forehead onto Bin's shoulder and sat there. He kept staring at Bin's hand.

He had not thought about it until then but, Bin's hands were smaller compared to his own. He softly played with Bin's fingers until the subject of his affection yelped.

Alarmed, Dongmin nearly freaked out when Bin said something did actually hurt. Like hell, in his words. And he knew it was hurting but did not want to tell him and make him worry more.

Dongmin searched the house for a bandage to wrap Bin's injured finger with a non-injured one. He finally found one and hurried back to Bin. 

“Thanks,” Bin whispered as he slowly wrapped the bandage around his fingers.

When Bin was finished, Dongmin attempted to apologise.

“I'm sorry,” Bin said looking back at him, Dongmin closed his mouth.

“What for?”

“I shouldn't have punched him.”

Dongmin shook his head, over his dead body would Bin feel sorry about what happened. “If you hadn't I probably would've done it.”

“Yeah but what if you lose your job because of this?” Dongmin could see that Bin was anxious and he did not want to see him like that anymore.

“My supervisor is very level headed, I don't believe she'll put this on me.”

“I hope so.” 

Bin slouched into the couch and Dongmin followed. 

“You hungry?” Bin asked.

Dongmin wrinkled his nose. “Not really.”

“Me neither.”

Dongmin frowned, Bin's never been not hungry in ages. He placed a hand to his forehead to check if he was burning with fever. Nothing.

“What are you doing?” Bin chuckled.

“Checking if you're sick.”

Bin grabbed his hand and held it. “Min, I'm just tired don't worry.”

“Okay. Let's go to bed then.”

“Together?”

Dongmin ignored the playfulness in his voice. “Unless you want to sleep on the couch or go back to your place, be my guest.”

Bin caressed his cheek. “You're blushing.”

“Okay let's go!” Dongmin exclaimed and pulled Bin up with him.

The other laughed as they stumbled up the stairs to Dongmin's room.

Dongmin rummaged through his drawer to find clothes for Bin to wear and chucked the bundle at him when he did. The clothes should fit him as they were roughly the same height.

When they were done changing, they climbed into Dongmin's bed.

“Hey. How about we go on our first official date soon?” Bin suggested.

“Sounds great.”

“Let's plan it later then, I'm tired.” Bin yawned. Dongmin flicked his arm playfully and cuddled up to him.

They shifted until Dongmin had Bin lying on his arm. He brushed away the fringe that fell in front of Bin's eyes. The younger grinned shyly and Dongmin reflected it. Closing his eyes he brought his lips to Bin's and kissed him. It was soft and tired and the two of them smiled at each other sleepily when they broke apart.

“Thank you for helping me out today.”

“Had to, who knows what would’ve happened.”

Dongmin nodded, barely withholding a yawn. “Night Bin.”

“G’night Min.”

...

Dongmin noticed the lack of Sunghun after he arrived at work. Hoping it would stay that way, he wasted no time in getting to his desk.

He worked on various tasks for a while before his supervisor called him to her office.

She greeted him and let him sit down.

“So about Mr. Yun.” She started. “I heard about what happened last week and the altercation between you, him and your friend. Nothing bad will come of this, don't worry.”

Dongmin sighed in relief.

“Thank you at least for telling me beforehand about your past with him or this situation would've gone very differently.”

Dongmin nodded again, unsure about what to say in response.

“You can go now, you won't have to worry about him anymore,” she said softly.

“Thank you, Ms. Choi.” He left her office and went back to his desk.

He sent a text to Myungjun and Bin about what happened before getting back to work, and for the first time that week, he was not on edge.

 

Dongmin met with Bin for lunch and ate quietly. He felt drained, like the past weeks had put him through a marathon.

He felt a nudge at his arm, and he snapped out of it. Bin was trying to get his attention because he stopped eating and was staring at his food.

“You okay?” He asked. Dongmin shrugged. “You want me to eat that?”

“Knock yourself out,” he replied and pushed his plate towards him.

Dongmin was silent but he did not want to be. He was tired, the kind of tired when adrenaline vanishes and there is nothing but fatigue. But he will need to pull through now that Sunghun was out of the picture. After all it was only Monday.

While they were walking back, Bin stopped him.

“Hey, remember when I asked you about going on a date?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, what about this Friday?”

Dongmin thought for a moment. He was not busy and this would be their “official” date after they confessed so…

“Sure.”

Bin beamed, “I'll pick out the venue because I was the one to ask you in the first place.”

Dongmin realising he was almost over the time allowed for his lunch break, gave Bin a quick peck on the nose. “Text me the details,” he said and dashed across the street.

“What was that for?” Bin squawked after him.

Dongmin did not answer and made a mental note to remind himself to tell Bin that he was late for work and needed to go.

 

In retaliation for making him flustered enough to not be functional for hours and leaving him on the spot, Bin told him the date venue was a secret but to dress nicely and wait for him at 6pm.

That was vague enough for Dongmin to go into a frenzied panic the day of the date.

“Myungjun what the fuck am I going to wear?” he asked as he destroyed his closet in search for decent clothing.

His best friend sighed. “Jeans and dress shirt, it’s nice enough. Not too formal, not too casual.”

“This is why I love you.” Dongmin turned back to his closet.

“Because I give you the bare minimum of fashion advice?”   
Dongmin spared him a glance in the midst of picking a dress shirt. “Exactly.”

“At least love me for the fact that I save your ass almost every week,” he whined.

“And I’m very grateful that you do,” Dongmin replied as his eyes laid on a navy collared dress shirt, perfect for the increasingly cold temperature outside and pulled it out to show Myungjun. He received a thumbs up and placed the shirt on the ironing board to iron out the wrinkles. He got dressed and hair in order, nothing too fancy; and waited a bit until it was time for Bin to arrive at his door.

“Calm down,” Myungjun said when he noticed that Dongmin was still jittery. “Bin's been your friend for quite sometime now. Think of this as just you two hanging out.”

“You're right.”

“Have fun and don’t try and back out, I’ll be busy having dinner with Jinwoo tonight.”

The both of them turned to the front door when they heard the doorbell ring.

“Shit,” Dongmin whispered and he felt a shove at his back that made him stumble towards the door. He glared at Myungjun, who smiled cheerfully at him.

Dongmin opened the door to find Bin, dressed in similar attire to him but with different colours and a red rose in hand.

“Hey!” Bin greeted, not registering Dongmin's stunned manner.

“Hey,” he greeted back after recovering. Bin looked way too handsome for Dongmin to function. The other handed him him the rose and he could not help but smile at the gesture.

“Want to get going? Jinwoo said we can use his car.”

“Right, yeah. Let's go.” The two of them linked arms and walked to the car.

As Bin drove them to the secret destination, Dongmin asked about where they were going but got shot down by him each time.

When they finally arrived at the place, Dongmin could feel his heart start to work up. 

He was about to start the date with Bin.

It was a restaurant and a very nice one at that. Cliche and cheesy enough to get Dongmin uncontrollably blush-y when Bin glanced back at him as the host showed them to their table.

“Bin, holy c-?” Dongmin covered his mouth to prevent himself from cussing. Bin giggled and handed him the menu. They ordered the same (cheapest) food with a red wine to share between them.

 

Dongmin took in his surroundings after they ordered their food with slight anxiety; he was so nervous he had not notice that he was drumming his fingers loudly until Bin held his hand.

Bin looked concerned and he felt bad.

“Sorry, I’m just-”

“Nervous?” Bin finished, Dongmin nodded. “I understand because look-” he reached to the side of his face and swiped a bit to show Dongmin the sweat glistening on his forefinger. “-I’m sweating really bad.”

“Gross,” he commented, giggling when Bin placed a hand on his heart in mock hurt before dissolving into silent laughter himself.

The two of them sobered up once the waiter arrived with their food. 

They ate in-between teasing and giggles which was boosted by the wine they drank. Dongmin drank a few glasses while Bin stuck to one glass as he was the one driving. 

When the bill arrived at their table, Dongmin not feeling entirely comfortable that Bin was going to pay for the both of them, reached for it only to be blocked by Bin's hand.

He glanced back at him and a silent standoff commenced until someone clearing their throat broke the spell.

They turned to find the waiter. “You know you can split the bill right?”

The both of them nodded and proceeded to do just that.

After they were done and paid. They ventured into the fancy garden behind the restaurant.

The garden was decorated with many different flowers and marble statues that lined the tall hedges. While they walked, Dongmin noticed a sign saying ‘Pick Me’ in front of a section filled with Camellias (named by the sign) ranging in different colours as well as many others. He picked out a red one.

“Binnie,” he called softly. Bin, who was strolling past the flowers, turned back and lightly jogged towards him.

“What’s up?”

Dongmin handed him the flower. “Here.”

The light from the lampposts in the garden did not hide the red that dusted Bin’s cheeks and Dongmin found it insanely adorable.

Bin cleared his throat. “Uh, thanks.”

Dongmin smiled and pinched his cheeks. “You’re really cute,” he said.

Bin smirked. “I know.”

Dongmin squinted at his cockiness. “Statement renounced.”

The other pouted making him even more cuter and Dongmin resisted the temptation of kissing him right then.

Bin seemingly reading his mind kissed him square on the lips instead. Dongmin was caught by surprise before he started to kiss back. He felt Bin's arms circle around his waist and he was brought closer as the kiss deepened.

Dongmin remembering where they were broke the kiss. Warmth washed over him as he stared into Bin’s starry eyes.

“L-let’s go back,” he stuttered.

Bin nodded his head, his lips sealed.

They exited the garden and headed over to the car park, hand in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter at least, I wanted to spread the events out but I'm pressed for time so sorry if you wanted more to come out of the sunghun situation! :'/

**Author's Note:**

> so it's been about two months since I last wrote anything :")  
> but I hope you enjoyed this first chapter and I also hope that i can update it as regularly as i can!
> 
> hmu @:  
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Platinumllamas)  
> [Tumblr](https://platinumllamas-writes.tumblr.com/)


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